Only The Dead Have Seen The End Of The War
by InstantEntertainment
Summary: Immediately following Season one's finale, the story is about Lieutenant General Tyler Jess Devlin. As the second-in-command of Tech-Com, Devlin goes back to 2007 to meet up with the Connors and help them prevent the future. Reviews are welcome.
1. Prologue: And From The Ashes

**Disclaimer:**I don't own any of the "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" - characters.

**Summary:** The story starts a few months of the first season's finale "What He Beheld"

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Prologue: And From The Ashes Rose The Machine**

Incessant ringing of car alarms, triggered by the explosion. Front doors were opened, people came out of their houses to see what was going on.  
It was the kind of attention they certainly didn't need and Sarah had to think fast. Her only chance was the fire-extinguisher. If she played her cards right, she could sell it as Cameron being really lucky to get away with a few burn wounds.  
She knew first-hand that this wouldn't stop the machine. If an exploding truck couldn't destroy it… She closed her eyes for a second and swallowed hard. The memory was still so very strong: they thought that they had escaped. That the machine couldn't have survived the explosion. As its flesh had burned away, evil had revealed itself in its truest form.  
"Mom, do something!" John yelled from close behind.  
"Get a blanket, John," Sarah ordered while she went to get the fire-extinguisher.

Cameron shook violently when her reboot was completed. Tilting her head a little she in a way wondered where she was. The silent command to her CPU for the last recorded images before shutdown showed her a man dressed in black and a sea of flames.  
She tried to open the door of the Jeep the human way but the explosion had turned into a mangled mess. A quick elbow to the door and it flew open. A quick scan of the street told her that although this was a quiet neighborhood and perfectly suited for lying low, the inhabitants of Maple Drive were very curious when something did happen. It could prove a jeopardy to their mission.  
"Cameron? Cameron?" She registered Sarah's voice.  
"Mom?" She mimicked fear into her voice.  
"John, get your sister out of the car while I try to put out the fire."

"What the hell happened out there, Cameron?" Sarah put the emphasis on her name, marching back and forth between the kitchen and the living room.  
"A man, an explosion," Cameron replied. "Shutdown, fire."  
"Well, you're a mess," Sarah remarked. "You'll be out of school for the next couple of weeks and so will John."  
"Mom, I can't miss school! You said it yourself that absence is what gets you on the radar."  
"Too bad, because you're not going, at least not without her," Sarah said firmly.  
"But, mom?" John protested.  
"I said no, John, and that's final! Now how can we fix you up," Sarah leaned in a little and brushed a strand of hair from Cameron's face.  
"That's effective," Cameron stated.  
"W-What?"  
"What you did… Like Vick did with his wife," Cameron explained.  
"I think the explosion must have scrambled your CPU. You registered that?" Sarah asked curiously.  
"Yes, it could be called 'comforting'."  
"Now I remember. You sense injuries, so it makes sense that you sense touch too."  
"Yes."  
"Good to know," Sarah said warily. "And were you planning on telling me? That you have this ability?"  
"You never asked."  
"Mom, don't start yelling at her now," John remarked in an attempt to stop the storm that was his mother.  
"Fine," Sarah snapped. "You help her then," at that she turned around and headed for the sanctuary that was her bedroom.  
"Sorry about my mom. When things like this happen, she can get a little," John palliated. "You know, crazy." "What's that hand gesture you made?" Cameron inquired.  
"What this?" John spun his finger in circles near the side of his head. "Crazy."  
"Thank you for explaining."

Months went by without any big events that turned their lives upside down and they fell into the rhythm of family life. As long as Cameron hadn't recovered from the damage she had sustained from the explosion, the search for Skynet and its developers had been put on hold, much to the annoyance of Derek Reese who was convinced that each minute they spent doing something else was a wasted minute.  
John and Cameron were forced to miss the school dance but were able to make it to the final exams. To celebrate that they were going to be in their Junior year, Sarah decided to treat them to a nice day of shopping at the mall.  
Little did they know that the future would once again turn their world upside down.


	2. Chapter 1: Old Friends

**Chapter 1: Old Friends**

It was at least 98 degrees in the shadows and Tyler checked the sleeves of his sweat-soaked shirt. He felt like he was burning up but he didn't want people to stare at his scarred arms, at the prominent tattoo on the inside of his right fore-arm. Drawing attention was the last thing he wanted to do, and yet the curious and funny looks he was receiving from passers-by told him he was failing miserably. T-shirts and shorts were the dress code in the sweltering heat of the day and he looked like he could go on a polar expedition any moment now.  
He stopped walking and took in his surroundings once again. An elderly man bumped into him, mumbled some words of apology and continued on his hurried way. People were always in such a hurry, unappreciative of their surroundings, taking it for granted as if it was going to last forever.  
Tyler knew better. In 4 years all this would be gone. His eyes were drawn to a large sign over the entrance of a huge building: Century City Shopping Center. He shivered of icy cold despite the heat. Could he enter it? His heart began to beat erratically at the thought, his feet rooted to the pavement. Did he feel fear? Something he hadn't felt in an extremely long time? He averted his eyes from the sign and observed the traffic, the pedestrians, everything. Across the street a woman, a man and two teens were heading for the entrance slowly and Tyler stepped back in the shadow. There was no need for them to see him just yet.  
That moment would arrive soon enough. Adrenaline began to rush through his veins when he saw a young woman follow the group inconspicuously. For any other person she was a normal person but Tyler had trained himself to the extreme to be able to spot them. Quickly he crossed the street, after making sure was safe, and folded in with the crowd entering Century City Shopping Center. Only a few feet away was the young woman, a few feet in front of her the group of people she was tracking.  
It threw Tyler off when the group entered the food court and the woman continued on her path. Had he been mistaken? He looked at the group from the corner of his eyes and returned his attention to his target. She had stopped and now pretended to look for something or someone while she slowly turned.  
Tyler walked straight past her and sat down on a small bench. He knew who her target was, who he had been assigned to to protect. As long as she didn't detect and indentify him, he would have the element of surprise if it would come down to a battle. He lowered his head and studied the knuckles of his right hand, hiding his face when he felt her scan the crowd for possible threats to her mission.

"That's odd," Derek frowned, turning his head a little in the direction where the familiar man had gone.  
"What's odd?" Sarah asked absently, smiling friendly at the waitress when she came to take their orders.  
"It's probably nothing," Derek answered slowly when he couldn't find the man.  
It had probably been someone who had looked like him. Still just the thought of the Devil possibly being here made his stomach churn uncontrollably and he had to fight to keep his breakfast down. If he was here, who was left in the future to reprogram the infiltrators sent by Skynet, and more importantly what had happened in the future that he had been sent here? John would have nothing to gain by sending another one of his best man back. Unless John was dead.  
"You look like you've seen a ghost," John quipped after he had given the waitress his order.  
"It's nothing," Derek said annoyed, looking at the people again. "Nothing for me, miss," he smiled friendly when the waitress asked him for his order.  
He looked at Cameron and saw what could be considered a look of understanding on her face. It confirmed his biggest fear.  
"We need to leave," Derek rose to his feet. "It's not safe here."  
"We only just got here," John protested fiercely.  
A young woman approached the entrance of the food court and Derek saw the tall figure of the Devil rise behind her. The Devil, respected and feared by all in the future, the only man Derek had ever known to attack the infiltrators barehanded for the fun of it and he was here.  
"We need to leave," Cameron echoed, yanking John to his feet and shoving him in the opposite direction, away from the young woman and her shadow.

Tyler followed the infiltrator in stealth mode as she zeroed in on her primary target. Her hand reached back for the concealed weapon tucked in the waistband of her jeans. This was the sign he had been waiting for. His right hand locked firmly around her forearm and the woman whirled around quickly, taking a firm swing at him which he dodged with great ease. As soon as she saw him she somehow appeared confused as to who had stopped her from executing her mission and she tilted her head a little.  
"Hello," Tyler chuckled amused, pushing her away from him roughly.  
The customers at the food court screamed and struggled to get away as fast as possible when the woman slammed into the counter, breaking everything on her path. She got to her feet quickly and reached for her handgun, not losing sight of her initial target.  
"Looking for this?" Tyler asked, holding up the gun before tossing it into the fountain next to the food court.  
As to be expected of an infiltrator she wasn't impressed and focused on her target again. Slowly she began to clear a path towards Sarah but Tyler cut her off in the middle, pushing her roughly to the floor. Sarah woke up from her daze, turned on her heels and left the food court in a hurry.  
The machine rose to its feet again and settled for its secondary target: the interfering factor of its mission.

"Who the hell was that?" Sarah demanded to know when she caught up with the rest.  
"Lieutenant General TJ Devlin," Cameron answered at the same time as Derek replied: "The Devil."  
"What?" Sarah shook her head in confusion. "One at the time, please," she said when she saw them both open their mouth simultaneously. "Cameron?"  
"Lieutenant General TJ Devlin," Cameron repeated her answer.  
"Derek?"  
"The Devil," Derek said with disdain.  
"Okay, someone explain?" John chimed in. "Cameron, who is he?"  
"Tyler Jess Devlin, Lieutenant General of TechCom, leader of the division IntelliTech, J-S-4-9-7-2-8, born on February 17th, 1991. He grew up in Century City, attended Campo de Cahuenga High School, imprisoned at Century in 2015, 2019, from 2021 to 2022 and in 2024. Served under John Connor from 2021, reached the rank of Lieutenant General in 2025. Sole survivor of the siege of IntelliTech Base in December 2025. Third in command of Tech-Com. He's John's best programmer. Operational as Jester and Devil."  
"He's the Devil, alright," Derek snorted with contempt.  
Sarah frowned and tilted her head a little as she thought about the information Cameron had given her. Derek's opinion was tainted and thus irrelevant. Why had he been sent back if he was so important in the future? It didn't make sense to her.  
"You said he attended the high school you're attending now," Sarah began as they rushed towards the exit. "Do you or John know him?"  
"Not yet," Cameron answered with what best could be described as a smile. "But we will," she looked at John.  
"And what do you know about him, Derek?" John felt compelled to ask since his mother didn't.  
"A loner with quite a few bats in his belfry. He's the one who convinced you that those tin cans could actually serve the resistance. Always tinkering with those metalheads in his downtime. Withdrawn, secretive, and yet the men and women who served and survived under him think the world of him."  
"He leads IntelliTech. What's that?" John asked.  
"A group of computer geeks with an obsession for the very machines that are trying to kill them," Derek said sarcastically.  
Cameron took over the conversation: "IntelliTech was founded in 2018 as an answer to Skynet's H-K's. When in 2021 the Human Resistance, better known as Tech-Com, was founded, John Connor and TJ Devlin joined forces and IntelliTech became a division of Tech-Com."  
"You spoke of a siege and that he's a sole survivor," Sarah offered, hoping to find out more about the mystery man.  
"Yes," Cameron confirmed. "The fall of IT was the result of one man's betrayal."  
"This Devlin?" John was curious to know.  
"No," Cameron answered simply. "Lieutenant General Devlin had nothing to gain with the fall of ITBase and everything to lose."  
"Meaning?" Derek ventured to ask.  
"He lost everything that night, except his life," Cameron replied.  
"Stop talking in goddamn riddles," Sarah sighed exasperated.  
"I don't have any detailed files on ITBase and the siege. Only what John told me," Cameron explained.  
"Did he ever mention the name of the traitor?" Derek looked at Cameron curiously.  
"Who? TJ or John?" Cameron countered in a way that resembled being confused.  
"Either one?" Derek offered.  
"No, it's not part of my mission," Cameron stated matter-of-factly.  
"Should we wait for him?" John suggested, an intense feeling of curiosity seizing control.  
"No, that's tactically dangerous. He will find us if he wants to. We need to leave," Cameron increased her pace when she caught sight of their car, almost turning it into running.  
"Can't you help him?" John was quick to follow.  
"The Devil doesn't need any help, does he, Cameron?" Derek emphasized her name to show his discontent with the machine having a name. "Tin cans like yourself would like to stay away from him as far as possible."  
"I don't experience fear," Cameron climbed in the passenger seat of the car.  
"No, but the very fact he exists messes with your programming, right?"  
"I have no recollection of it, but I am not afraid of him."  
"Well, I should be if I were you," Derek grinned haughtily. "And you know exactly why."  
"Enlighten us," Sarah said annoyed, getting behind the wheel.  
"Not only is the Devil John's best programmer, he's also a terminator-terminator," Derek chuckled amused. "He absolutely does not fear the machine, attacking them unarmed is a sport for him. There's nothing that man doesn't know about those metal bastards."  
"I know," Cameron said coolly. "He reprogrammed me together with John. For that I cannot be scared of him."  
"Stupid machine," Derek growled, turning to look out the window. For him this conversation was over.  
"What do you know about this Devlin? Aside from the obvious statistics," Sarah asked before she started the engine.  
"Not much. He and John will be best friends," Cameron shrugged.  
"Did he," Sarah paused as she let the car pull out of the parking lot. "Did he have a family?"  
Cameron turned to face Sarah, glancing at John over her shoulder for the briefest of moments, before turning her attention completely to Sarah: "Not really."  
Sarah rolled her eyes. A simple straight answer would suffice. This beating around the bush gave her a headache. She rubbed her forehead softly.  
"Explain?" She sighed, looking in the rearview mirror. "Not really? What does that mean?"  
"It means that he had a sweetheart but no one knew who," Derek added to the conversation. "Only Devlin, his troops and John knew. Which lead to numerous rumors about his or her identity."  
"Seriously, Derek, that guy can't be gay," John stated firmly.  
"Then why all the secrecy?" Derek countered. "Why were the 'other' troops not allowed to go to ITBase and hang out with them? Why was everything so hush-hush? They had someone cooped up with them there, and the rest wasn't allowed to know about it."  
"I don't know," John said lowly. "You're asking me for answers about things I have done that I still will have to do."  
Sarah's brow furrowed and she bit the inside of her lower lip as she tried to piece together what she had just learned about this Devlin. An unidentifiable feeling rose from deep within the pit of her stomach. The look in the man's eyes when their gazes had met for the briefest of moments. She hadn't thought much of it until now. Had it been recognition, as she had immediately had thought it to be?  
It also could be a just a coincidence, a trick played on her mind, but her instinct told her that it had been the first possibility. Devlin knew her, had known her, would know her. She shook her head fiercely to rid her mind of those confusing thoughts. Until only one question remained: why was Devlin here?  
And unless they saw him again, the answer would never come.  
"Could you at least try and stay in your own lane, mom?" John squeaked from the backseat.  
"Oh, yes, sorry," Sarah said weakly, swerving the car back into the right lane.

The woman sized up Tyler, her eyes flashing red as new mission data entered her program.  
"Lieutenant General Tyler Jess Devlin?" She asked mechanically.  
"The one and only," Tyler grinned. "Sure took you long enough to identify me."  
The machine kept quiet.  
"I know you have had a mission priority change, darlin'," Tyler chuckled amused, keeping a close eye on the infiltrator. "Which one is it? Kill me or retreat?"  
The machine didn't answer.  
"C'mon, darlin', don't keep me in suspense."  
Her eyes flashed red again and she began to back away.  
"Where you going?" Tyler asked darkly. "Ah, it's retreat. Too bad, 'cause it ain't gonna happen."  
Tyler knew that the machines knew no fear and that what could be described as fear was called survival mode. Programmed to complete their mission any way possible, a survival mode was essential, just like reroute. Sometimes they go bad and nobody knows why. Well, almost nobody.

"You okay, mom?" John asked concerned.  
"Yes, I'm fine," Sarah mumbled, climbing the steps to the porch.  
"You sure?" John persisted. "You kinda look confused."  
"Wouldn't you be? Don't you wonder how many more have you sent back from the future to keep us safe?" Sarah snapped at her son. "Another one to die for the greater cause?"  
Sarah didn't want to analyse this in front of Derek and the tin miss. It worried her beyond all reason that she had frozen up when the terminator had targeted her, like it had been a déjà-vu. A lone warrior had stopped the machine, just like one had 23 years ago. Not Derek, not Cameron, not herself, but a mysterious man who had appeared from nowhere.  
Why hadn't she acted on her instincts when she had felt that something had been awry? It should've been a fun outing to celebrate the start of the summer holiday and it had turned into having to flee… again.  
John wasn't the only one who wanted to stop running but as long as Skynet were to exist, it would keep sending back terminators in time to erase the past and secure its future. She was tired of running, of fighting but she knew she could never give up, any sign of weakness wasn't permitted because it would send the wrong signal to her son.  
"I don't know, mom," John mumbled sadly. "I don't know why I keep sending back those poor souls… With everything that we have changed in this time you'd think we'd put a stop to it but they keep coming and I keep sending back these soldiers to protect us. Kyle, Uncle Bob, Cameron, Derek and his crew, and now this Devlin guy… Will it never end?"  
Sarah swallowed hard and looked away, trying to collect her thoughts long enough to give him a straight and honest answer but the right words refused to come and she remained silent.


	3. Chapter 2: In The Future

**Chapter 2: In The Future...**

"Skynet's newest infiltration unit exactly mimics a human's appearance," John Connor sighed, studying the screen. "These images were recovered from the security system at Jolon Base, thanks to your analytical skills" he pointed at the small figure on the screen.  
"No more 6doubleO's then," Tyler grumbled. "Or simple 800's."  
"No, my friend," John shook his head. "I guess Skynet finally realized you were on to it, but I got a present for you. We caught one. Series triple8. Skynet's best version of an infiltrator as of yet. Look," he nodded towards a still statue of a woman. "Looks like a regular teen, right? A frail looking girl, perfectly built to turn a few heads while she seeks out her target."  
"Hmm, it's whatever someone finds attractive," Tyler circled around the girl slowly, studying every facet of her appearance. "Can't say she would get my attention, unless she was targeting someone."  
"She looks like a Cameron to me," John said lowly. "Like the triple8 I knew in my teens."  
"It is the triple8 you knew in your teens. It's the exact same serial number," Tyler sighed.  
"Of course that's something you'd remember," John chuckled.  
"There's not much I don't remember, John," Tyler said darkly, touching his left shoulder with his right hand, glancing at the barcode tattoo on his right forearm. "That fucking liquid metal boy got me good."  
"The only one you never got to study," John smirked. "That must sting."  
Tyler shook his head and rolled his eyes: "Hardly."  
He circled the machine-girl again, studying her from all angles: "You think she has a reroute?"  
"She is one of Skynet's latest creations, so I wouldn't bet against it. But if you want to find out, be my guest. You know where to look, don't you?"

Tyler blinked frantically, his vision adjusting to the darkness. Automatically his right hand reached for the scar on his left shoulder. His body was severely marred by the war against the machines but for some odd reason that scar the T-1000 had given him bothered him the most. Perhaps because when its knife slashed through the flesh it had appeared the shapeshifter had enjoyed it. Like it had nothing to do with his mission objective to gain information and everything with some kind of pleasure. As if it had been gifted with a taste for maim and torture.  
He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes again. It was quiet in the abandoned factory, an eerie stillness he wasn't used to and it was rather enervating. Used to the consistent sounds of the battles, H-K's flying over, the restless survivors in the tunnels underneath the city, this silence grated on his nerves, feeding his distrust of his surroundings. He had known this world and it shouldn't be unfamiliar to him but his heart and soul had been tainted by the continuous fight against the machine. In a few years this world would perish in the flames of the nuclear apocalypse.  
Slowly he opened his eyes again and took in his surroundings. In the far corner to his left he could make out the improvised basin in which he had destroyed the infiltration unit. He snorted with annoyance: Skynet hadn't even really tried by sending an inferior 867, the infiltrator-model before the T-triple8. He hadn't even bothered to remove the CPU for research purposes. It wouldn't have told him anything he didn't already know.  
Before he made the time jump John had made him swear that no evidence would ever left behind, nothing that could advance the technical evolution or hasten the coming of Judgment Day drastically. Destroying the 867 had been almost too easy: it should've retreated the moment it had identified him. Had the time jump messed with its programming causing some kind of hesitation?  
A sudden noise from afar caused him to be on guard. H-K's? A wry chuckle rose from his chest. It was just a helicopter. He leaned back again, closing his eyes again, hoping for a peaceful sleep.

"Cameron?" Sarah called when the girl passed her room.  
Cameron turned back and peeked into the room: "Yes?"  
"Come here," Sarah gestured that she had come in. "Sit down," pointing at the chair.  
"What are you doing?" Cameron looked at all the papers scattered across Sarah's bed.  
"His name is in here," Sarah sighed. "Each time… their name is in here. And once again we find out when it's too late."  
"Not with Lieutenant General Devlin," Cameron stated matter-of-factly.  
Sarah's face drew into a sarcastic grimace: "He took on a machine without any weapons."  
"He doesn't need weapons," Cameron countered.  
"We all need fucking big guns against your kind," Sarah growled.  
"Not Devlin."  
Cameron could tell from the look on Sarah's face that she wasn't convinced: "There is nothing Lieutenant General Devlin doesn't know about my kind."  
"Why, Cameron, is that an attempt at sarcasm?" Sarah asked wryly.  
"My CPU is equipped with a learning ability-"  
"So you'll be better adjusted, yeah, yeah, I know," Sarah interrupted her. "Before Derek took over the conversation this afternoon I asked you a question."  
"Did he have a family?" Cameron said, copying Sarah's voice.  
"Don't do that!" Sarah growled angrily.  
"Do what?" Cameron clearly didn't understand.  
"Imitate my voice, literally repeating what I said. It's freaky and not just for me," Sarah explained. "But did he have a family?"  
"Not really."  
Sarah shook her head bemused: "Care to explain?"  
"Family in the traditional ways do not really exist in the future. Most family bonds are forged in battle. John was his family, his troops were his family… Derek was right when he said that Lieutenant General Devlin is a loner. Unlike John who has many friends in the future. There isn't much information about him. The Devil and IntelliTech were the ghosts of Tech-Com. Many battles have been won because of IT information."  
"But you know him, right?"  
"Yes, he and John reprogrammed me ," Cameron displayed something of a smile.  
Sarah mulled over her next question for Cameron: "In this timeline… Will I," she paused. "Will I survive Judgment Day?"  
"It's not in my files," Cameron answered. "Where I was sent from you died two years ago, but the future has changed. Why?"  
Sarah glanced at the papers and threw a bunch of them aside furiously: "These fucking timelines mess with your head. By jumping over my death we've altered the future, entered an uncertain and unknown timeline. If we had stayed in our own time, at least we would have known the future."  
"And you would have died two years ago. John anticipated on your willingness to help him prevent Judgment Day and in return he could help you avoid your death."  
Sarah shook her head wearily: "And now this future John has sent back another one of his best warriors. Why? It doesn't make sense."  
"The altered future," Cameron offered.  
Sarah rolled her eyes and shook her head again: "You sure you're the most advanced model out there?"  
"I don't know. Maybe."  
"It was a rhetorical question. You don't have to answer every question asked," Sarah grumbled beneath her breath.  
"Thank you for explaining."  
"Mom?" John stuck his head around the corner.  
"John. Come in," Sarah smiled warmly, happy with the distraction by her son.  
"Can I talk to you? Alone?"  
"Cameron," Sarah said with the slightest of nods towards the door.  
"I'll leave," Cameron nodded.  
"So what do you want to talk about?" Sarah asked, looking up at her son.  
"Devlin… We should've helped him, right? I mean, the guy is menacing but it was still a terminator he took on," John mumbled.  
"According to Cameron he'll be fine," Sarah brushed a few papers aside and patted on the empty spot.  
"So you've grilled Cameron about him. I hope you had better luck than I had with Derek," John obeyed his mother and sat down.  
"I'm not too sure about that," Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "It provided me more questions than answers."  
"Same here," John smiled sadly. "It's like Derek doesn't want us to… I don't know."  
"Have him join the team of people who want to stop Skynet?"  
"I guess," John gulped.  
"He's in there, John," Sarah pointed at the papers. "I've seen his name."  
"That doesn't make sense. Why would he be in there? No matter how hard Derek tries to hide it from his voice he does respect the man."  
"But not the boy," Sarah suggested.  
"So you think it's personal?"  
"I think so, yes. The boy won't stand a chance against Derek. Andy never saw it coming and neither will this kid."  
"But why?"  
"I don't know, John. It's probably safe to say that he has nothing to do with the development of Skynet so it's something else, something personal."  
"Didn't Cameron say that ITBase had been betrayed? And that Devlin lost all that had been important to him?" "You don't think it was Derek, do you?"  
"I don't know, mom. When I talked to him a while ago after I saw that tape he said something, something I would never have thought again if the fall of IntelliTech hadn't been mentioned. It was something about what can happen between 4 walls and how it screws with your head, that it makes you do things you thought you'd never do."  
"Still he is your uncle and even if he still is a stranger, we should give him the benefit of the doubt. We hardly know anything about this Devlin. He could be the traitor or someone we don't know about."  
"If you say so," John mumbled.  
"Something else on your mind, John?" Sarah asked when she noticed her son was stalling.  
"You never answered my question."  
"What question?"  
"If it will never end?"  
"I was already afraid you'd get back at this… I don't know what to answer, John. A part of me wants to lie and tell you it will end but the truth is as long as Skynet will be created it will not end. It will keep sending back terminators and you will have to keep sending back protectors," Sarah sighed, sending her son a sad smile.  
"But why did I send one of my highest ranking men here?"  
"I don't know, John, and I don't want you worrying about that either. Fact is that you've sent him here for a reason and we're destined to run into him again."  
"I wonder when," John grumbled.

The room was brightly lit. People were sitting at desks, typing rapidly, giving information and coordinates to people on the outside, on the battlefields. Two identical infiltration units stood like wax statues in a far corner of the room, shut down, waiting to be reprogrammed. This was home. This was IntelliTech Base.  
A door swung open and with a firm but light step Tyler entered the room, followed close by two privates. They took off their helmets, their faces smudged by dust and soot.  
"Hanssen, status report on the aerial Hunter-Killers! We've been seeing too many of those flying mother fuckers near our base."  
"Due south-east, sir," Private Hannsen replied without looking up from the radar.  
"Marks, any significant increase of Skynet activity near Home Plate? Connor's been bitching about it!"  
"No more than usual, sir," Sergeant Marks answered.  
"Lamont, reprogramming update?" Tyler barked.  
"Welcome back, sir," Private Lamont looked up from the monitor. "A little more tweaking and the first one is ready, sir."  
"Lieutenant Ryan, general report?"  
"All recon units are home for the coming day, sir," First Lieutenant Ryan looked at the charts she was holding. "A3 reported repairs at the ground assault unit factory near Huntington Park. A4 confirmed that Tech-Com squad 11C2 took out 4 aerial and 2 ground units at the crossing of Rio Vista and Olympic. A1, A2 and A5 reported an increase of heavy combat chassis units near Thayer and Santa Monica."  
"Century," Tyler said through gritted teeth, looking at his right forearm, at the barcode burned in by laser scan. "I wonder why. Any reports from the R's near Jolon Base?"  
"No, sir. We've been trying to establish contact with them but no response. Not for the past 3 days."  
Tyler tapped his index fingers on his desk as he looked at the big screen. All reports of that night were marked on the map. His brow furrowed as he lifted out one report after another, analysing the data quickly.  
"Lieutenant Ryan, put up the last input from Jolon Base along with the last R-reports?"  
"Something wrong, sir?" First Lieutenant Ryan asked as she searched for the requested files.  
"Jolon's lost. R-recons are either dead or caught. Skynet will have ambushed them, assuming they were extraction teams," Tyler rubbed his eyebrows with his right thumb and middle finger. "The increase of hccu's near Century, it all adds up," he looked at the screen again. "The prisoners are being brought to Century."  
"What do you want to do, sir?"  
"Get General Connor on the line. Skynet will ambush any extraction team that will try to liberate the prisoners during transport."  
The screen flickered and John Connor appeared onscreen: "Good morning, Lieutenant General Devlin," John said without a hint of emotion.  
"Good morning, sir," Tyler greeted back.  
"The latest?"  
"I need an assault team deployed to Jolon, sir. We'll need the footage of the security system."  
"Why?"  
"The base has been attacked, sir."  
"Are you sure? Has it been confirmed by your men, Lieutenant General?"  
"You know we've been trying to re-establish contact with the R-recons, sir. Still not a word. But there is an sudden increase of activity near Century, sir," Tyler said monotonically.  
"Fresh meat and bones," John stated sarcastically. "Risk calculation for rescue, Lieutenant General?"  
"Unfavorable at present time, sir. Too many hccu's in the area, sir."  
"Jolon… sending an assault team there, will they run into trouble?"  
"I don't think so, sir. Whatever Skynet sent there, it's completed its mission and has moved on."  
"Contact Salinas and order them to deploy an assault team to Jolon Base. Good work, Tyler… John Connor, over and out."  
The screen flickered black and returned to the map with all the status reports.  
"Get Major Valdez on the line."  
Another flicker and a few seconds later Major Valdez showed up on the big screen: "A good morning to you, Lieutenant General Devlin," she greeted him warmly.  
"Good morning, Major," Tyler said slowly.  
"What can I do for you, sir?" She asked when it became obvious it wasn't a social call.  
"I need an assault team to check out Jolon Base."  
"Can I ask why?"  
"Reports indicate it might have been under attack a few days ago. I need a team to verify and retrieve the footage of the security system," Tyler explained in a monotone voice.  
Major Valdez nodded: "Team selection?"  
"Preferably rookies. I don't think Skynet still has its minions there but I don't want to sacrifice good men in case I'm wrong."  
"I'll get back to you as soon as the assault team has returned. Valdez, over and out."  
The screen went black again for the shortest of moments before returning to the maps and reports. Tyler pulled up a chair and sat down, looking intently at the screen. As leader of IntelliTech he couldn't afford to miss anything so he went over the reports again, compiling tactical analyses in his mind, ever wondering if he didn't overlook something.  
"Sir?" First Lieutenant Ryan asked softly. "She wants to see you, sir."  
Tyler rubbed the bridge of his nose, his eyes gliding over the screen at a dazzling speed: "I can't leave, Lieutenant. Skynet's up to something and I need to figure out what it is as soon as possible," he paused. "Just tell her… Tell her that I didn't get killed or wounded today."

It was the crack of dawn and daylight was seeping slowly into the practically abandoned factory.  
Tyler shook his head to rid his thoughts of the sleep induced mist. He hadn't slept much, the smallest hint of noise waking him, conditioned by years of war. In a way he missed the battlefields, the consistency of war noises around him.  
A slow smile crept across his face as he looked at the windows in the roof. A clear blue sky, the promise of another sweltering hot day. His stomach rumbled, reminding him he hadn't eaten in a few days. It was nothing new to him but there was an overabundance of food in this time, waiting to be eaten by him.  
Now dressed in a navy peacoat, a stained white shirt and worn black track pants he looked like a hobo. Last night on his way to his hideout he had been in luck when he had come across the dead-drunk homeless man. He had taken a late night walk, the cover of the dark night having a soothing effect on him after the erratic events of that afternoon.  
He chuckled amused when he thought of how John would have loved to rib him about ending up in the gutter this fast. It was just appearance, an adjustment to his environment so he would blend in, stay off the radar.  
Still it wasn't an outfit he particularly enjoyed, especially not after the executive suit he had stolen on the night of his arrival in this time. As soon as he would have found himself some money he would buy himself some proper clothes.  
He patted his clothes down in search of some change so he could at least buy himself something to eat. No luck.

"John!" Sarah called from the kitchen. "It's already half past 8!"  
"I'm up, mom," John mumbled sleepily as he trudged into the kitchen. "It's summer holiday."  
"Your point?" Sarah handed him his plate with pancakes.  
"I want to sleep in, hang around the house and do nothing," John complained, sitting down at the small kitchen table.  
"Good morning," Cameron said from across the table.  
"Urgh, don't you ever get tired of being so goddamn perky," John grumbled annoyed before he took his first bite.  
"I never sleep," Cameron stated the obvious.  
"Whatever," John scratched his head and took another bite.  
"Wrong side of the bed, John?" Sarah shook her head, her eyes twinkling with amusement.  
"Getting up at the crack of dawn doesn't exactly do wonders to my mood, mom."  
A crooked smile spread across Sarah's face and she tilted her head a little, the telltale sign she was thinking of something witty to say.  
"What?" John sighed when the remark didn't come.  
"Nothing. Morning, Derek," Sarah said as Derek passed her by.  
"Morning," Derek mumbled, grabbing a plate and sitting down demonstratively at the breakfast table.  
"Apparently you've inherited your bad morning moods from your father's side of the family," Sarah quipped when she caught the dark looks on the men's faces.  
Derek glared: "You fight at night, you-" He began in his own defence.  
"Rest during the day," Sarah finished his sentence. "I know… Kyle told me."  
A deep sadness washed over her. Though it had already been many years since Kyle had so heroically and nobly sacrificed himself to save her he was still a vivid and fond memory, at least for the time they hadn't been on the run from the machine.  
Remembering the smile on his face when she had fake tossed him the bag with the pipe bombs still lifted her spirits. She had felt something for him she had not felt before and had never felt again after he had died, not even with Charley.  
Sweet, dependable Charley whom she had loved and still loved but who she could never love to the degree she had loved Kyle Reese. She knew that Charley still cherished hope for a future together, that he would leave his wife in a heartbeat if she were to ask him but to her it was a closed chapter of her life.

"What's up with your mom?" Derek nudged his nephew in the ribs.  
John looked at his mother and saw a most familiar sight, a sad and distant look in misted over eyes: "She misses my dad," he answered simply.  
"She does?" Derek smirked.  
"I don't think a day has gone by that she hasn't thought about him," John grumbled, trying to prick the last piece of pancake to his fork but it kept falling off. "Charley came closest to making her forget about dad for a while."  
"Did he now?"  
"But not very successful. As soon as he'd left for work, she'd change back to the brooding woman I know as my mom."  
"Did she… I mean," Derek began, unsure about how to broach the subject.  
"She shacked up with any man who could teach me something useful, mostly about weaponry and warfare, at least if that's what you wanted to ask," John said before swallowing the last bite of his breakfast.  
"How did you know I wanted to ask about that?" Derek asked utterly confused.  
"A gut feeling." John sighed while reaching for his glass of orange juice.  
"And no one ever came close to my little brother?" Derek now asked amused.  
"Neh," John shook his head. "I doubt someone ever will. Sometimes I think she stayed with Charley for those 6 months because she wanted a father figure for me. After Uncle Bob it became obvious to her that I missed a man's influence on my life and she tried to settle down. Charley's a good guy but in the end I think she would've destroyed him."  
"She would kill him?" Cameron chimed in.  
"Figuratively speaking yes," John answered, annoyed with her eavesdropping. "She needs a man who is willing to fight her. Charley would never have done that."  
"Fight her?" Cameron asked. "You mean?"  
"Yes, fight her," John echoed.  
"So Derek?"  
"Hey, she's definitely not my type," Derek protested before taking a big gulp of his coffee. "More my brother's."  
Sarah Connor was exactly his little brother's type: a feisty, determined, no nonsense woman with her heart in the right place and a purity of soul that offered hope for the future.  
"And Devlin?" Cameron continued her inquiry.  
Derek glared at her, wiping the coffee from his chin after a spit-take: "You would know more about it than I do," he rumbled, rising to his feet, leaving the breakfast table.


	4. Chapter 3: Apples Never Fall Far

**Chapter 3: Apples Never Fall Far From The Tree**

Tyler ran a hand through his tousled hair, hoping it would make him look less dishevelled. He knew that beggars couldn't be choosers but it shouldn't have been so literally in his case. The warming sun shone on his smudged face and made his stubble beard itch as he observed his surroundings. He had reached Maple Drive, the street sign told him.  
Now all he had to do was find number 9836 and watch the house from a safe distance. There was no need to contact them just yet and that suited him fine. And as long as they wouldn't go on a field trip it would become an easy day.  
He smiled pleased when he discovered a tree across the street from the Connor house, the perfect observation post. After he hoisted himself onto a thick branch with the best view at the Connors, he struggled himself out of his pea coat and created a makeshift pillow from it so he could lean back against the trunk without the bark piercing through his shirt and into his back.

"So what do you want to do today?" Sarah asked when she found her son behind his computer.  
"Nothing," John replied.  
"Nothing," Sarah repeated. "Are you going to be lazy all summer holiday, John?" She asked sharply.  
"Whenever I get the chance, but I doubt it will be often given what we're up against."  
"I think we should start with Sarkissian. Got a lead on him?"  
"Mom, I just booted the computer. I haven't had time to do my chore for the day," John growled.  
"John," the tone of Sarah's voice didn't bode well.  
"Sorry, mom," he said quickly, hoping it would have him escape another of his mother's infamous rants.  
There was no doubt that he loved his mother more than anything in the world but she was a difficult person to be around. No matter how hard she tried she sucked at being a mother. She had a knack for missing important clues that indicated he just needed her to comfort him and hold him close, instead of giving him one of her stringent lectures about what applied to the situation the best, whether it be Judgment Day, the war against the machines or the future of mankind in general.  
Yet he could appreciate her efforts to be a real mother to him. Still the fact that she had signed that piece of paper in which she had given up her parental rights to him hung over them, like the sword of Damocles. He had tried to forgive her, by telling himself over and over again that it was just a piece of paper and that it hadn't changed a thing but it had changed everything.  
Nothing would be the same ever again. The fact that she had given him up so easily had breached his trust in her, in all he had considered friends or allies, in mankind. In the distance he heard his mother's voice, a waterfall of words that didn't translate in his mind. Obviously his apology had come too late and his mother had felt the need to go off on him.  
He looked at his computer screen and clicked the icon that would connect him to the internet. Sarkissian didn't have his priority. There was someone else he wanted to know more about. He clicked the address bar of the browser and typed in the url of his school.  
"Welcome to Campo de Cahuenga High School" flashed across the screen and he quickly clicked on 'skip intro'. He scanned the webpage for the link he would need to hack the school computer system.  
After submitting a few commands an elaborate menu showed up on the screen and he clicked on Student Database, followed by a smaller menu from which he choose the 'find schedule for' – option. He entered the name Tyler Jess Devlin but hesitated to press enter.  
Did he really want to know? Wasn't he going to influence time once more by finding out about Devlin? Should he leave it to fate? He closed his eyes and pressed enter. Had he done the right thing?  
"John Connor!" Sarah barked angrily. "You haven't listened to a word I've said!"  
He opened his eyes and looked at the screen. A much younger version of the man they had seen yesterday had appeared. The schedule revealed that Devlin had been in his senior year of high school last year. John went back to the smaller menu and clicked on student grade reports, entering the name again.  
"Holy shit!" John exclaimed when he saw Devlin's grades. "He's a straight A student."  
"Who is?" Sarah asked confused.  
"Tyler Devlin. He graduated from high school this year."  
Sarah came up to her son and looked at the computer screen: "It could be why he's on the list if he's so smart."  
"I doubt it. There's nothing that implicates him in the development of Skynet."  
"Perhaps he's on it because he has to be protected?" She offered a new option. "Skynet could have it in for him as well. It has sent back Vick to protect ARTTIE and to kill Derek and his crew."

The increasing warmth of the day made Tyler drowsy and he had a hard time keeping his eyes open. The shadow of the tree offered no shelter against the rising heat and he leaned back, deciding it couldn't hurt to close his eyes for a moment. Soon sleep took over and he fell into restless dreams of the future passed.

"General Connor's been calling," First Lieutenant Ryan came up to him as soon as he had set foot in the door of IntelliTech Base. "Seems you were right about Jolon Base. It was attacked a few days ago."  
"Statistics?" Tyler asked, taking off his helmet.  
"No survivors, sir. The captives must be the remaining members of R-recon."  
"Casualty rate among R-recon?"  
"Salinas' assault team recovered 4. No confirmation on their identities as of yet."  
Tyler rolled the muscles of his shoulders to relieve some of the tension building there: "Tell Salinas to rush it."  
"Yes, sir."  
"Are the new reports up?" Tyler asked looking at the big screen as he walked over to his desk.  
"We're still waiting for the reports from the D's, sir," Private Marks answered.  
"Just get me whatever we already have," Tyler said darkly.  
"Major Valdez said she'll try," First Lieutenant Ryan called from her desk.  
"Incoming call from General Connor, sir."  
"Good morning, General Connor," Tyler saluted.  
"At ease, Lieutenant General," John smiled wryly. "Major Valdez has confirmed that your suspicions were right about Jolon Base."

Cameron barged into John's room: "We've got company."  
"What?!" Sarah exclaimed, immediately ultra-alert.  
"I did a thermal proximity scan of the environment. Either we have a freakin' big squirrel up the tree across the street or we're being watched."  
John pressed the hibernation key of his computer: "Devlin the older," he snorted as he made his way out of the room.  
"Where the hell are you going?" Sarah grabbed her son by the wrist, making him turn around. "It's not safe out there! You don't know who is up that tree. It could be another terminator."  
"No, the thermal proximity scan indicates it is a human life form," Cameron stated. "It's in a state of rest now."  
"What do you mean?" John asked.  
"Reduced heat expulsion, no positional change the past few minutes."  
"So whoever is watching us has fallen asleep?" John wanted to make sure he understood.  
"It's hot outside. If it is someone from the future, this climate will greatly affect his or her functioning," Cameron stated matter-of-factly.  
"Well, girlie, it is time for you to shake things up," Sarah remarked.  
Cameron gave a little nod as a sign she had understood the order and stalked out the room, followed close behind by John and Sarah, who were curious about their company. "

Sir," First Lieutenant Ryan said in a whisper. "She wants you to see her before you leave for Home Plate."  
Tyler leaned back in his desk chair, folding his hands behind his head: "Is she in a good or a bad mood?"  
"Afraid she will once again rip you a new one, sir?" First Lieutenant Ryan sniggered.  
"She does it on a daily basis, so I can't say that I am," Tyler grinned.  
"Of course, sir," First Lieutenant Ryan sent him a knowing smile.  
All of a sudden the floor began to tremble and Tyler lost his footing. He fell and fell until he hit the floor, landing less than softly on his back, the wind getting knocked out of him completely.  
"Are you okay?" A woman's voice asked from a distance.

Sarah knelt next to their visitor and looked him over: "Are you okay?" She asked again when she saw him blink.  
"What the fuck happened?" Tyler growled, hissing as pain raged through his back.  
"You fell out of the tree," John stifled the need to burst into laughter. "Like a huge acorn."  
"I'm sure I wasn't helped," Tyler looked furiously at Cameron who stood looking at him intently. "What? I was ripe for the plucking and you shook the tree, right?"  
"I don't understand, sir," Cameron replied.  
"I didn't expect you to understand," Tyler snorted, struggling to sit up and save some of his dignity.  
"Easy, you took quite a dive," Sarah said as she helped him.  
"No shit... Get off," Tyler pushed her helping hands away.  
"I would let her help you if I were you," John said good-naturedly. "Or prepare yourself for a tirade twice the size of the Titanic."  
"John," Sarah warned her son but couldn't hide the amusement about his statement from her voice.  
Tyler rolled his eyes in annoyance: "Like I need reminding," he muttered barely audible.  
"What?" Sarah frowned, confused to as if she had heard it right.  
"Nothing," Tyler grumbled. "Couldn't you have at least cushioned the fall?" He looked at Cameron again. "Pavement versus human… I lost… Again."  
Cameron mimicked a crooked smile: "Too bad, sir. I was most sure you would win."  
"John didn't forget to program you with his sense of humor," Tyler smiled wryly.  
Now it was John's turn to roll his eyes in annoyance. He was really beginning to hate the references to things he would do in the future as if he had done them yesterday.  
Cameron tilted her head a little: "You have the same sense of humor, sir."  
John looked at the dishevelled man who was now struggling to get to his feet. His back had to hurt from landing flat on it but aside from an incidental grimace he showed no pain. John had heard Tyler's comment as well and he wondered what it meant.

"Too bad, the couch's already taken," Derek smirked when Tyler shuffled into the living room.  
"I'll sleep anywhere if I want to sleep… If that means I will have to drag your sorry ass off of that couch so be it," Tyler smiled scornfully.  
"But you won't," Derek laughed. "You'd rather sleep somewhere else."  
"Meaning?"  
"In Johnny's mommy's bed," Derek challenged.  
"Don't tell me that you're one of those pathetic losers who believed the rumors of Sarah Connor being alive and well at ITBase to be true? I thought you were above that," Tyler retorted unimpressed. "Oops, I have you mistaken for your brother. He was the brains, you were the brawl."  
"You goddamn son of a bitch," Derek jumped to his feet, getting ready to attack Tyler.  
"Is there a problem here?" Sarah asked, sauntering into the living room. "Well?"  
"Not from where I'm standing," Tyler answered, staring at Derek.  
"No," Derek shook his head before he let himself fall back on the couch.  
"I'm sorry. We don't have a place to sleep for you," Sarah said in apologetic manner.  
"That's okay," Tyler smiled friendly. "When it's dark out, I'll be heading home anyway."  
"Home? You just fell out of a tree. You honestly don't think we will let you go home," Sarah stated. "You should eat something, rest up a bit before even thinking about going home, wherever that may be. At least stay for dinner."  
"I wouldn't if you value your life, Lieutenant General," Derek quipped.  
Sarah cast a dark look at Derek, who quickly shut his mouth before he would really put his foot in it.  
"I'd like that," Tyler nodded in agreement.  
"Don't complain and say I didn't warn you, Lieutenant General," Derek remarked.  
"Come," Sarah held out her hand to Tyler. "I want you to rest a bit and since Derek doesn't want to give up the couch, John's in a foul mood and Cameron is, well, Cameron… you can have a nap on my bed."  
Tyler took Sarah's extended hand and glanced back over his shoulder at Derek: "I guess you were right, Reese. For a change," he said with a sardonic grin.  
"Right about what?" Sarah asked curiously, guiding him to her room.  
"Nothing," Tyler answered.  
"There's a lot of animosity between the two of you. Why?"  
Tyler shook his head: "Beats me. He's always been that way towards me."  
"And I'm pretty sure that you haven't done something to strengthen that feeling of hostility," Sarah shut the curtains.  
"He's no angel either," Tyler stated fiercely.  
"You sure it's not a testosterone thing?" Sarah suggested leaving the room for a moment to get him a clean T-shirt. "Here," she pressed the piece of clothing in his hands.  
"I doubt it will fit me," he looked at the T-shirt with a deep frown across his forehead.  
"You are kind of a big guy, aren't you? I'll send Cameron out to get you some fitting clothes," she said. "It doesn't suit you to walk around in rags."  
"Do I make you nervous?" He asked pointedly, indecisive if he should sit down or remain standing.  
Sarah stopped in her tracks, cocked her head to one side and looked at him: "What do you mean?"  
He smiled faintly: "When you're nervous, you tend to chatter."  
"How would you know?" She asked, chewing on the inside of her lower lip.  
"Trust me, I know," his smile went from faint to cryptic.  
"Wonderful… Then you probably also know that I will not stop asking you about it until I get some real answers."  
His laughter filled the room: "Expecting no less."  
He began taking of his shirt but it got stuck halfway when his shoulders refused active duty after the severe blow they had received from falling out of the tree: "Uhm, a little help here?"  
"For God's sake," she scolded. "Here, sit down," she helped him sit on the edge of the bed and then helped him out of his shirt.  
"Thank you," he offered his gratitude with a sense of self-consciousness.  
"Shoes off," she ordered, walking into her bathroom.  
He kicked his shoes off and sat looking at the door opening of the bathroom, his head a little tilted to the right. "Here, take these," she placed 2 pills in his hand and handed him a glass of water.  
He popped them in his mouth and drank the water eagerly, spilling it down his chin and throat: "Can I have another one?" He asked hopeful, holding out the glass to her.  
She snatched the glass from his hand and disappeared into the bathroom again, only to return seconds later with a full glass of water. Again he drank the water with such eagerness that he spilled more than he downed, but the clean water tasted so good.  
"Thank you," he mumbled handing her the glass back.  
"Get some rest," she helped him lie back on the bed. "I'll check in on you later."


	5. Chapter 4: No Way Out

**Chapter 4: No Way Out**

He felt the air burn in his lungs as he ran and jumped over the debris and the rubble. This had once been the center of the bustling city of Los Angeles. On his right were the ruins of the Los Angeles County Municipal Court, a little further down the street what used to be the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion.  
The nuclear war, dubbed Judgment Day by the survivors, had put an abrupt end to human's rule. In less than a day the entire world population had been decimated after Skynet had begun its attack against humanity on April 21st, 2011, only days after it had gained sentience. Placed in control of all the U.S. Military weaponry, it had employed almost every weapon of mass destruction available in its arsenal in an attempt to wipe out mankind.  
Everything lay in ruins now, skeletons lay scattered on the streets, in the ruins, under the debris. People who hadn't known about this coming day, who had gone about doing their daily things, who hadn't stood a chance. Incinerated on impact, stripped off their flesh as the inferno had swept through the streets of every city, every little hamlet in the world.  
He stopped running for a moment and tried to catch his breath, fighting off a wave of nausea as the sickening sweet smell of fire and smoke crept up his nose.  
In 2 days it would be the 4-year anniversary of Judgment Day. Four years ago to this date Skynet had become self-aware. He looked at the night sky, shrouded in battlefield mists, and wondered when he had last seen a starry sky with the moon bathing the world in its watery reflective light.  
Tyler Jess Devlin was on the run from the machines. He had stumbled upon a group of hccu's near Banning Street. Opposite to John Connor's orders to operate in pairs he liked to work alone and it looked like he was finally getting the bill for this recklessness.  
A sardonic smile spread across his face. Maybe getting caught by the machines wouldn't be so bad as to what would await him once he got back to Base. The severe scolding he would receive from John Connor would pale in comparison to what she would have to tell him about his defiant and reckless behaviour.  
A sudden explosion on his left threw him to the right and he slammed into something hard. Dazed by the impact, his ears ringing, he rolled onto his back, his vision slowly blurring. The last thought to cross his mind before total darkness enfolded him was 'she's going to let me have it now'.

"Here," Cameron handed Sarah the shopping bags. "It took me a while but I got everything on the list."  
"And you did pay for everything, right?" Sarah asked while emptying the bags on the kitchen table.  
"Right," Cameron echoed before stalking out of the kitchen.  
Sarah looked through the things she had sent Cameron to buy. She could only hope she had guessed the right sizes of the man.  
"See that Cameron is finally back," John sauntered into the kitchen and to the refrigerator, glancing at the things on the kitchen table. "Didn't you go a little overboard, mom? Even Derek had to make do with my old T-shirts."  
"They won't fit him, and since we shook him from the tree-"  
"Typically my mom, always trying to make things better," he grinned, rummaging through the fridge. "So what do you think of him?"  
"I don't know, John. What do you think of him?" She retorted.  
"Don't know either," he shrugged his shoulders. "Impressive, menacing, probably defiant," he underlined each quality with another shrug of his shoulders. "Though the latter might not comply with his rank."  
"I wonder why you sent him back. Somehow it just doesn't make sense."  
He rolled his eyes: "Don't ask me why I did things I won't do for the next 20 years."  
"Glasses are in the overhead cabinet just to your right, John," she stated when he was about to take a sip of milk from the carton. "I know, John. I just want to understand the motives of the future you and perhaps subconsciously I thought since you and him are one and the same you might have a clue as to why. I'm sorry."  
"Don't be," he said quickly. "I'd probably think the same way too. But I'm not him, at least not yet, and I don't think I ever want to be him."  
"You will become him, John. Well, maybe not exactly the man Derek or Cameron or Devlin have known in the future."  
He swallowed hard: "Still I will have to send all of them, won't I? Kyle, Derek, Devlin, anybody else who has crossed time for us to help us, to protect us," his voice trembled. "How could I do that?" He dissolved into tears, twisting and turning, his hands pressed against his temples. "Tell me, mom, how can I send them back? I'm sending them to a certain death, and it feels like I just don't care," he wailed.  
It broke her heart to see her son in such emotional turmoil, but just as he had been unable to give her the answers she needed, she couldn't give him the answers he needed in return. The only thing she could do right now was to take him in her arms and hold him close in the hopes it would ease some of his pain. He buried his face in her shoulder and had a good cry.  
"You care, John. You do care," she whispered in his ear, ruffling his hair in a way only a mother could.

"Welcome to Century again," a man's voice echoed through the black fog of his mind.  
"Wait a minute… I know that voice…John?"  
"That sure took you a long time, TJ."  
"A mere four words," Tyler protested while he slowly opened his eyes.  
By now his eyes had adjusted to the darkness and he finally could make out the form of his friend and mentor. Slowly he sat up and took in his surroundings. A dark room, one small window with bars, probably the same one as last time.  
"What are you doing here?"  
"A bunch of rubber balls cheated during a game of tag," Tyler answered.  
"Don't they always," John chuckled. "Injuries?"  
"One hell of a headache and probably a couple of cuts and bruises. Nasty side-effect of being slammed into things that won't budge."  
"You have a habit of it," John laughed. "They have to catch you with explosives. But speaking of things that won't budge," John began. "How is she?"  
"Fine, wondering when I get to busting your pathetic ass out of Century."  
"You just got here and already there's talk of escaping. Gotta love you for it," John grinned. "You do know you really are going to get it once we bust out of this joint, don't you?"  
"No doubt. It's quite possible we're safer in here than out there," Tyler quipped. "She'll fry my ass for getting caught... again."  
John laughed amused: "Like you'd mind."  
"Shut the fuck up!" A voice broke through the darkness of the night. "I'm trying to sleep here."  
"Who's there?" Tyler barked in the direction the voice had come from.  
"Oh, that's young private Reese, Tech-Com D-N-3-8-4-1-6," John explained. "Don't mind him."  
"And who the hell are you?" The voice bellowed.  
"This walls have ears, kid. Never ever say your name out loud again, is that understood?" Tyler growled. "If you want to know who I am, you will have to come over here."  
Scraping noises. Tyler could make out a figure coming closer to them.  
"Okay, private Reese. A few basic rules… one, if I ever hear you give your real name aloud in a place crawling with machines I will kick your ass all the way into next year," Tyler made no effort to hide his annoyance from his voice.  
"Who the hell do you think you are?"  
"TJ Devlin, Sergeant Major Tech-Com J-S-4-9-7-2-8," John answered for him.  
"The ghost?" Kyle asked. "I thought he was a myth?"  
"Second, now that you know who I am, you will keep quiet about it. You will address me with Tom and him you will call Jim, and we will call you Ken. No last names to complicate matters."  
Tyler smirked devilishly: so this loudmouthed idiot he had just met was going to be the father of the future in a few years. Dark thoughts clouded his mind: he could alter the course of the future and the past in unforeseen ways by killing the little piss-ant with a flick of his wrist. It would be so easy.  
The door opened and a large figure entered the room, its eyes lighting up bright red.  
Tyler tried to get up but found himself chained to the floor. Only one and he didn't get to beat it into shrapnel. He let out a howl of frustration, yanking at the chains.  
"Easy, Tom," John said gently. "Don't get them alerted. You've escaped them one time too many."  
Tyler sat back on the floor again, his eyes following every move of the machine. Cold flesh was pressed firmly against his wrist when the machine yanked him up. He wrestled to get free but the hold on his wrist intensified. The machine held some kind of device over his arm. A searing pain set his fore-arm on fire. In a matter of seconds it was all over and the machine let go of him, reaching for its next victim. Skynet had switched tactics: branded with a barcode would make it easier to identify the prisoners and the escapees. Was this his fault?  
He curled up in a ball, clutching his burnt arm, trying to beat the pain by disconnecting it.  
The darkness increased and he passed out.

"Devlin?" John shook the man roughly by the shoulder, hoping it would wake him up from his nightmares.  
Used to nightmares of his own and those of his mother he misjudged the situation completely, finding himself flying across the room in the blink of an eye. His breathe whistled from his lungs when he collided painfully with the dresser.  
"John?" Sarah came rushing into her room after hearing the ruckus.  
Her son was lying on the floor, trying to catch his breath, rubbing his painful shoulder.  
"You okay, John?" She knelt beside him, quickly looking him over for any serious injury.  
"I'm fine, mom. My shoulder and my ego are a little bruised," he snorted. "But it's nothing compared to what we did to him," he nodded towards the bed.  
A deep frown creased his forehead. Devlin had stopped thrashing around violently in his sleep and was now sleeping peacefully, no longer howling and barking orders. Had the nightmares left him? Or was there another reason, one less evident?  
Dazed and confused by his flight he hadn't taken notice of when Devlin had calmed down. Had Devlin thought he had beaten whatever had haunted him in his dreams when he had sent him flying? Or what? He couldn't put his finger on it, and yet he felt the answer was right under his nose, right in front of him.  
"At least you've learned an important lesson," his mother began to see the humor of it.  
"And that is?" He took the bait reluctantly.  
"Never go flying without a parachute," she burst into laughter, helping him to his feet. "Go put some ice on it. It'll reduce the swelling."

"I heard you got your first flying lesson today," Derek teased his nephew. "Liked it?"  
"Can't say that I did," John muttered, his fingers flying over the keyboard of his laptop. "Couldn't you have warned me or something?"  
"For what?" Derek asked as he sat down on John's unmade bed.  
"Oh, just his incredible strength," John answered sarcastically.  
"Oh that," Derek said amused. "His idea of a good time is to boot up a terminator and beat it to shrapnel. What do you expect from a guy like him?"  
"I don't understand, Derek. How can a human?" John paused to correctly formulate his question.  
"Beat a tin can into junk?" Derek finished. "I'll let you in on a little secret. Devlin isn't called the Devil for nothing. He's like the human version of Skynet. An IQ that's off the scale. He knows everything there is to know about the metalheads. That's how he beats them."  
"And that's why you call him the Devil? Because he is… our equivalent to Skynet?"  
"Yes, and well, his last name didn't help him either."  
"So what's this? The most popular boy in school versus the smartest boy in school? I don't get it. Aren't we supposed to work together instead of fighting each other? Now all Skynet has to do is sit back and enjoy the show of humans killing each other off."  
Derek scratched his chin: "Good point, kid. Let's say I have good enough reasons to dislike the guy."  
"Derek, John, dinner's ready!" Sarah's voice carried through the hallways of the house. "Cameron, go wake up our guest! And bring him his new clothes!"  
"I guess your mom doesn't want you take another flying lesson either," Derek quipped.  
"Funny, ha-hah," John growled, hitting the hibernation key.


	6. Chapter 5: Bad Manners

**Chapter 5: Bad Manners**

"Wow, mom, you've finally found someone who appreciates your cooking skills," John quipped, staring at Tyler in awe.  
"You gonna finish that?" Tyler asked, pointing at John's half empty plate.  
"Help yourself," John picked up his plate and handed it to Tyler.  
"John," Sarah glared good-naturedly at her son.  
"What? I'm not that hungry. He is. And you always go on and on how bad it is to waste good food," John remembered at the last moment to put in 'good'.  
"He got you there," Derek chuckled, taking a sip of his beer to wash away the last bite of Sarah's latest poor attempt at cooking.  
Tyler scraped everything onto his plate and began to eat: "Tastes good," he said with half a mouth full.  
Sarah looked at him sideways: "I guess table manners isn't your strong suit."  
"Cut the guy some slack. He just gave you a compliment," Derek fought to keep a straight face.  
John sniggered. This was so typical of his mother: finally someone appreciated her cooking skills and she would bitch about the lack of table manners.  
"Though I'm sure he'll be sorry in a while," Derek added.  
"Stomach of steel," Tyler stated after swallowing.  
"Much better," Sarah smiled. "Now if you can chew with your mouth closed, I feel we're getting there."  
John noticed a twinkle of amusement had appeared in Tyler's eyes.  
"Speaking of table manners," Tyler began, unable to keep the laughter from his voice. "Did you know it's considered to be bad table manners to single out and chastise someone for displaying poor table manners?"  
Derek and John burst into heartily laughter when they saw the victorious grin on Tyler's face and the murderous look on Sarah's. Even Cameron cracked a smile.  
"He got you really good, mom," John cried from laughing.  
Sarah kept quiet, looking at Tyler continuously but who wasn't in the least bit disturbed by the anger flickering in her eyes and who had returned his attention to his dinner. John knew that this wasn't over, not by a long shot. The longer her anger smouldered inside her, the more violent her outburst would become.  
He felt sorry for the guy since he obviously didn't know what he had just triggered by challenging her. And the fact that his mother hadn't said a word just yet didn't bode well.  
Tyler raised his head again, showing a devilish smile, while he scanned the table for any other leftovers.  
He knows, John realized all of a sudden. He knows and he isn't scared.  
It instilled a new and profound respect for Tyler in John. Not only was he not scared of the machines, he wasn't scared of Sarah Connor either. There had been moments in John's life in which he hadn't known whom he had to fear most: the machines or his mother.  
"Who has room for desert?" Sarah asked sweetly, breaking through her self-imposed silence.  
"Home made?" John asked fearfully.  
"Don't worry, I had Cameron pick it up this afternoon. It's cherry garcia ice cream," Sarah answered.  
John noticed that the look on Tyler's face had sharpened, his eyes narrowing to slits: "That's my favourite," he stated darkly.  
"Lucky guess, I guess," Sarah said smugly, rising to clear the table.  
"Let me help you," Tyler offered in a sickening friendly way. "You've already made us dinner. It's only appropriate someone other than you clears the table."  
"Thank you, Tyler," Sarah sent him a fake smile. "Now that's good table manners."

Cameron watched John pace back and forth: "Why are you doing that?"  
"God, I must be going crazy," John mumbled, turning on his heels and walking back.  
"What do you mean?"  
"Didn't you see?.. Didn't you see what just happened at the dinner table?"  
"Yes, we had dinner. You and Derek complained about the food as usual. The Lieutenant General enjoyed his meal, and your mother… I couldn't read her with her back turned to me," she summarized dinner.  
"That's not what I meant," he exclaimed. "Apparently you didn't see," he ran a hand through his hair.  
"See what? I don't understand."  
"They were openly defying each other. Here I thought I had to worry about Derek and Tyler. How did she know about his favourite ice cream?"  
"Because it's hers too. She could have shared this knowledge with him, but for purposes unknown to us left him with the idea she knew something about him," she explained.  
"How would you know that it's hers too?"  
"You told me," she replied.  
"Right," he shook his head as he turned again. "Could've known you'd say that."  
For the next few minutes they kept quiet, Cameron studying his behaviour, John trying to piece together the puzzle.  
"It's going to be okay, John," she finally said.  
"As long as we can avoid any bloodshed, it's gonna be just peachy, I bet," his voice dripped with sarcasm.

"So… When are you going home?" Derek asked, leaning against the doorpost of the bathroom.  
"Eager to get rid of me, Reese?" Tyler retorted, reaching for a towel to dry himself off.  
"You don't belong here," Derek answered with a snort.  
"Oh, and you do?" Tyler inquired, slipping on a clean T-shirt.  
It was a little tight and he felt the fabric stretch unwillingly over his muscles, immediately a cause for concern about the size of the jeans that had been bought for him.  
"Yes," Derek replied.  
"Why?"  
Tyler put on the jeans and discovered them to be comfortably wide. At least she had gotten the size right this time.  
"He's my nephew," Derek said smugly.  
Now it was Tyler's turn to snort: "I could trump that, you know."  
"Unless it has to do with either John or Sarah being related to you, I doubt it."  
"Does the name Robin Baxter ring a bell?"  
"The boys having a pissing contest again?" Sarah asked when she passed by the bathroom on the way to John's room.  
Tyler shrugged his shoulders and felt the fabric rip. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the sleeve had come off at the seams.  
"Nice going, knucklehead," Derek smiled scornfully.  
Tyler reached for the sleeves and ripped them off: "Problem solved."  
He searched through the things that had been bought for him, certain he had seen a shaving kit somewhere. A broad smile graced his lips when he found it. Only a blade and a can of foam but it would do nicely.  
"Got more to say?" Tyler asked, leaning down to splash water in his face. "Or you want to take the risk that I will use this blade for another purpose than intended?"  
"You wouldn't," Derek gulped nervously.  
"There isn't much anymore that I would not do, Reese," Tyler said darkly.

Sarah rubbed her eyes and forehead in slow circular motions to relieve some of the tension that had been building inside. She was still furious with him for challenging her, for putting her in her place. Even Derek knew better and that said a lot about him.  
She was the materfamilias. It was very simple: her house, her rules. That smug look on his face as he had openly challenged her. It had made her blood boil and she had almost acted on her impulse to hit him for it.  
Why did he have to be so infuriating? She wondered if he hadn't sustained brain trauma as well after his involuntary dive from the tree. At least it would explain part of his antagonizing behaviour.  
She picked up a few pieces of paper, skimmed through them without remembering a word she had just read and then threw them aside carelessly. It was useless trying to find him in there, like a needle in a haystack. Feeling tired all of a sudden, she lay down on her bed and closed her eyes, hoping the nightmares would stay away.  
For the next ten minutes she lay tossing and turning, but the liberating sleep wouldn't come. Her mind kept racing, never granting her a moment's peace. It didn't help that now there was Tyler Devlin.  
What was his mission? Did he really know her or was he just rattling her cage? Why did it feel like such a relief that he was here? Why did he insist on grating on everyone's nerves? What was the reason for the animosity between him and Derek? Who was Robin Baxter?

Shadows danced on the walls of the narrow tunnels, making her extremely edgy while Sarah wandered aimlessly through the complex. She looked around corners and into niches. Makeshift beds, weapons. Where was she?  
She looked into another niche and saw a teenage girl dressed in combat fatigues looking up at her. The girl looked like she had been crying.  
"Ma'am, you shouldn't be out here," the girl said startled. "The Lieutenant General will tan my hide if he finds out."  
"What's your name?" Sarah asked.  
"Robin," the girl replied annoyed, looking like she could dissolve into tears again.  
"I'm Sarah," Sarah smiled warmly in the hopes it would comfort the woman.  
"I know," Robin bowed her head. "That's why the Lieutenant General will be so furious. You shouldn't have come here."  
"You said your name's Robin? Are you… Are you by chance Robin Baxter?"  
"No," Robin shook her head. "Who is that?"  
"I don't know," Sarah answered honestly. "I guess I heard the name somewhere and thought it could be you."  
A series of explosions caused the floor to quake and Sarah had to put a hand against the wall to steady herself. Thick dust fell from the ceiling.  
"What the hell is going on?"  
Before Robin could answer, thick black smoke bellowed through the hallways. Sarah began to cough.  
"You know how to use this?" Robin asked, pressing a weapon in Sarah's hands.  
Sarah looked at it. It was a weapon like Cameron had assembled in the vault, minutes before their time jump: "I fired it once or twice," she answered firmly, trying not to come across like a complete idiot.  
She felt Robin's eyes rest on her, just a little longer than was necessary, only to be interrupted by another series of explosions that rocked the tunnel complex. Debris started falling from the ceiling and she had to step back when a beam came down.  
"Be safe," Robin said while she disappeared into the smoke.  
Shrill cries of horror carried through the tunnels as the black smoke thickened. In the distance Sarah could hear dogs bark frantically as if they had gone berserk. The barking stopped.  
Her heart lodged in her throat when a dark shadow rose from the smoke. Time seemed to come to a complete halt. Instinctively she raised the weapon Robin had given her, her index finger gently squeezing the trigger, aiming for the dark figure.  
"Sarah?" The dark figure called.  
"Kyle?" She called back, realising too late that it was Tyler rushing towards her.  
The look on his face was grim, almost without emotion: "Those metal motherfuckers have found us," Tyler stated, staring into the smoke, ignoring the fact she had called him Kyle. "Don't know how. We gotta get outta here. C'mon," he grabbed her firmly by the wrist and started in the opposite direction of where the smoke was coming from.  
"You're hurt," she whispered when she noticed the big cut across his left cheek.  
"Nothing I can't handle," he said sternly, pushing her in front of him to hurry her, looking over his shoulder every two seconds.  
Left, left, right, corner after corner. You had to know your way around here if you didn't want to get lost.  
"Hurry," he gave her a gentle push as a sign she should speed up. "We're almost there."  
She watched in horror when a huge man carrying two laserguns came around the corner: "Tyler?"  
His grip around her wrist tightened and she almost tripped when he pulled her away from the man. The sickening scent of burnt flesh reached her nose and she gagged, dragged to the floor when he smashed into her. Only now she felt the incinerating pain in her shoulders, the adrenaline racing through her body no longer able to mask it.  
The black smoke thickened as infernal fires swept through the tunnels, causing the world to grow dim to eventually fade into total darkness.  
Someone shook her by the shoulder, interrupting this strange feeling of tranquillity: "Mom!" Another rough shake.  
"John?" She opened her eyes abruptly and found her son hovering over her with a look of utter worry on his face.  
"Mom? Are you okay?" He asked concerned.  
"Where's Tyler?"  
"Gone," he answered.  
She tried to swallow and ended up coughing. Her throat felt like she had breathed in too much of that damn black smoke.  
"Here," he said. "Drink this."  
She sat up and took the glass of water from her son. The cold fluid eased the strain on her throat: "I need to talk to him," her voice was hoarse. "I want answers. Now."  
"He left about an hour ago."  
"You told tin miss to follow him, right?"  
He shook his head: "You know as well as I do that he'd know she was following him."  
"So you just let him go without knowing where he went. Really smart, John."  
"Not exactly," he began to grin.  
"I'm not in the mood for games," she grumbled, taking another sip of water.  
"Well, you could always try calling him," he chuckled.  
"Meaning?" She looked at her son sharply.  
"As of today he's in the prized possession of Cameron's cell phone… I slipped it into the pocket of his jacket just before he left."  
"It would have been more efficient if I had followed him," Cameron stated, standing in the door opening. "Like Sarah said," she added. "He could throw the cell phone away once he discovers it. Following him to his hideout would have been much more efficient."  
"I don't think he will," Sarah came to her son's defence.  
"Humans do stupid, illogical, inefficient things," Cameron countered. "You said it yourself."  
"I know what I said and when I said it, thank you very much," Sarah grumbled. "And I was referring to me. I doubt Tyler is like that."  
"Lieutenant General Devlin is highly efficient, but he's a human."  
"Don't you have something better to do?" Sarah made no attempt to hide her annoyance with the machine from her voice. "Like that thermo-whatchamecallit."  
"Thermal promixity scan. I did one this morning. There's no need for a new one."  
"Just do it," Sarah said warily.  
"Why?"  
"Do you have to question every little thing I ask of you?"  
"I don't understand," Cameron replied.  
"Fine. Let me put it into words you do understand. I don't think he will throw away the cell phone and I do think he's still around."  
"Why do you think that?" Cameron asked.  
"Because he's human. He isn't programmed to do one thing and move onto the next. He's around and I want to talk to him," Sarah explained.  
"Thank you -"  
"You don't have to keep saying that," John interrupted Cameron. "It's really weird and it makes you sound like a freak. Try saying 'understood' or 'I get it' instead."  
Cameron nodded in comprehension: "I get it."  
"There you go," John smiled amused.


	7. Chapter 6: Death May Be The Greatest

**Chapter 6: Death May Be The Greatest Of All Human Blessings**

_When a rose dies, a thorn is left behind._ It was a quote from Ovidius that had popped into John Connor's head the moment the confirmation had come that IntelliTech Base had been under siege. It refused to leave because it couldn't be closer to the truth.  
He had thought she would be safe there, with his best and only friend guarding her.  
"In the future you have many friends," Cameron's voice echoed through his mind as the memory forced itself upon him. She had repeated that statement when the occasion had called for it, but he had discovered it held no truth. Hollow words expressed to give comfort to the one receiving them but they bore no meaning.  
People thought they were his friend, that he was their friend and he let them in that believe. Tyler had been his only friend because he hadn't treated him like the goddamn messiah people thought he was. Tyler had called him out on numerous times, openly questioning his authority if the situation had called for it. By doing so Tyler had proven himself a true and worthy friend. Not those so-called friends who agreed with everything he said and decided.  
"General Connor," sounded over the speakers. "This is Sergeant Rooker. We've reached our destination. What is this place?"  
John gulped and wondered if he shouldn't switch off the speakers. Just hours before he had spoken to Tyler onscreen, small talk, this and that. As he did every morning Tyler should have reported the latest updates an hour ago, but the screen had remained black. John hadn't hesitated and had sent an extraction squad to ITBase, uncaring if good men lived or died.  
"First assessment?" He tried to keep the tremor from his voice.  
"It's bad, sir," Sergeant Rooker replied. "Really bad."  
He could hear voices in the background calling orders and information.  
"It must've been more than one infiltrator, sir."  
"Of course," he agreed.  
"Oh God, sir. They've systemically killed everybody."  
"Check the tunnels," his heart began to beat wildly.  
"No survivors, sir," Sergeant Rooker reported a few moments later.  
At those words John's world collapsed.  
"Hold on, sir. We heard something… I need some help here! Sir, we've got a survivor here!" Sergeant Rooker exclaimed excitedly. "His dog tags say TJ Devlin."  
"How is he?" John asked, feeling a glimmer of hope rise from deep within.  
"Barely holding on, sir. Breathing and pulse are shallow. Multiple lacerations."  
John picked up on the gag noise the voice made: "What's wrong?"  
"His left arm's gone, sir. It's a gaping hole now."  
"Is someone there with him?"  
"What do you mean, sir?"  
"Is there a woman near him?"  
"Just a sec, sir. Peterson, McNab, I need a hand here!"  
John prayed that she wasn't there. That she had escaped and was now wandering among the ruins of the city, hiding until she encountered friendly unit.  
"Found her. How did you know, sir?"  
"It doesn't matter how I knew," John growled furiously. "How is she?"  
"Uh, dead, sir. Who is she, sir?"  
John closed his eyes: "It doesn't matter," he lied. "Sergeant Rooker, these are your orders. "Bring the Lieutenant General and the woman to Home Plate."  
"But she's dead, sir," Sergeant Rooker exclaimed. "And the Lieutenant General, he's so badly wounded it's only a matter of time before-"  
"Do as you are told, Sergeant Rooker. Furthermore I want you to retrieve the security footage. I want to know how the hell this was possible."  
"Hell is a correct word to describe what must've happened here, sir. They never stood a chance."  
"I have a favor to ask of you and your men, Sergeant Rooker. I want you to forget what you saw there, who you saw there and where you saw it."  
"Sir?"  
"Don't make me turn it into an order, soldier!" John barked.

"You were wrong," Cameron stalked into Sarah's room. "Nothing showed up on the thermal proximity scan."  
"Did you think of checking the rooftops? Our friend has a fondness of high places," Sarah stated sarcastically.  
"How am I supposed to do that?"  
"Well, you go out of this room, climb the stairs to the second floor, climb the stairs to the attic and you look out the windows while doing that thermo-thingy."  
"Thermal proximity scan," Cameron corrected her.  
"Mom," John rolled his eyes. "Aren't you overdoing it a bit?"  
"Well, she asked for it," Sarah said in her own defence.  
Cameron left the room, bumping shoulders with Derek who now entered the room.  
"Do we actually need a living room?" Sarah remarked aggravated. "It's either the kitchen or my room."  
"Mom, don't start," John said annoyed.  
"Well, it's the truth, isn't it?"  
"You're overreacting."  
Sarah decided to let it rest and turned her attention to Derek: "What do you want?"  
"I think there's something you should know about the Devil. I just thought of it and it could very well be just rumors but you need to know. Just in case."  
"Just in case of what?" Sarah asked slowly.  
"There was talk amongst the troops, which also contributed to him being called the Devil," Derek began.  
"I swear I'm going to hit someone or something, if you don't cut to the chase." Sarah looked at the ceiling and then at Derek.  
"A friend of mine served with Sergeant Rooker and he heard that Devlin has the left arm of a metalhead," Derek said quickly, knowing that she would suit the action to her word. "Must be his wildest fantasy come true if it's the truth."  
"I don't see how that would be possible seeing the second rate medical treatments you've received in the future," Sarah said in disbelief. "It's ridiculous."  
"No, it's not," Cameron remarked, standing in the door opening. "You were right. Someone is on the rooftop of the house across the street. Want me to check it out?"  
"No, first I want you to explain to me why it isn't ridiculous that Tyler has an arm of a cyborg," Sarah replied.  
"MedCom," Cameron said simply.  
"You're joking, right?" Derek asked sharply.  
"MedCom?" John frowned.  
"The division MedCom was founded in December 2025 to facilitate better medical care for the injured soldiers. Leader was Robin Baxter, who went m.i.a. in 2027."  
"Robin Baxter?" Sarah echoed.  
"Yes, Corporal Robin Baxter, Tech-Com T-Q-1-5-6-3-9, born August 23rd, 1999, in Omaha, Nebraska. Moved with her mother to Los Angeles when she was 3. Imprisoned at Century from 2015 to 2019. Escaped with Lieutenant General Devlin and few others in May 2019. Served under Tyler Devlin from 2019 to 2021. Served under John Connor from 2021 to 2027."  
Sarah looked at Derek and tried to decipher the look on his face, but he masked whatever he was thinking or feeling very well. She had heard Tyler mention the name, before she interrupted them. Something, she was beginning to realize, she shouldn't have done. Maybe it had resulted in a fight but it would have shed a little more light on the situation.  
What was it that connected Derek Reese, Robin Baxter and Tyler Devlin? Aside from her son.  
"Rather convenient it was founded immediately after the siege at ITBase, don't you think?" Derek stated without a hint of emotion in his voice. "John Connor's best medics finally got a division of their own and their first patient… Lieutenant General Devlin, who miraculously grew his arm back."  
Sarah looked at her son who shrugged his shoulders: "Is that a problem?"  
"I guess not," Derek answered, glancing at all present in the room before leaving.  
"Why is there so much hate between them? Is it about Robin Baxter?" Sarah looked at Cameron for answers.  
"It's not in my files," Cameron replied.  
"Is that your latest pet phrase?" Sarah asked sharply. "You lied about Devlin. Who's to say you're not lying now?"  
"I lied?" Cameron inquired.  
"You left out some things that could be important," Sarah sighed, her nerves raw from the events of the day. "Like Robin Baxter. MedCom."  
"What are we going to do about our friend on the rooftop?" John asked.  
"Not much," Sarah reached for a stack of papers. "Let him think we don't know he's out there."  
"I thought you wanted answers straight away," John remarked.  
"And you want to create a volatile situation with Derek and Tyler?" Sarah asked. "They'll go for each other's throat in no time."  
"So Derek gets the couch, and Tyler gets the roof. Doesn't seem fair to me," John said matter-of-factly.  
"John," Sarah began, looking up from the piece of paper she was trying to read. "We'll discuss new sleeping arrangements tomorrow morning."  
"Whatever. Good night, mom."  
"Good night," Sarah muttered, her eyes skimming over the page.  
"You lied," Cameron said after a few minutes of silence.  
"What?" Sarah laughed shyly.  
"You lied. You know it's tactically dangerous to have Derek and Tyler in one house," Cameron explained.  
"Yes, I know," Sarah agreed. "I don't need to run a tactical analysis to know that Derek and Tyler aren't the best of friends."  
"They hate each other," Cameron stated.  
"It's called sarcasm, Cameron."  
"I get it."  
Sarah shook her head tiredly. Small scenes of the nightmare she had earlier tried to force their way back into her mind: "You didn't lie when you said that you didn't know who had been the mystery guest at ITBase, did you?"  
"No," Cameron answered. "John never told me. Why did you lie to Lieutenant General Devlin during dinner?"  
"Sorry?" Sarah mumbled before she looked at Cameron again.  
"You said-"  
Sarah raised her right index finger: "I warn you. If you copy my voice and repeat what I said, I swear I'm going to hit you."  
Cameron's face showed a faint smile: "You said: Lucky guess, I guess. Why didn't you tell him it's your favourite too?"  
"Why would I?" Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "Why spoil all the fun?"  
"You did it for fun? Why?"  
"Why do people do things for fun? They just do. It takes the edge off, I guess. Done playing 20 Questions? Because I need to get some reading done," Sarah nodded towards the piece of paper she was holding in her left hand.

John stared at the ceiling, his hands folded behind his head, thinking about the day behind them, the day ahead of them. As a kid he had learned never to plan more than one day ahead. You could be here today, and in a totally different country tomorrow.  
He leaned back a little further, figuring he deserved a break from doing his 'homework'. He looked out the window, to the building across the street, the only one nearby with a flat rooftop. Was Tyler there? Hiding in the dark covers of the night, keeping a close eye on them as they continued their quest to find and stop Skynet.  
In a strange way John felt a little safer knowing that Tyler was out there, watching over them. Despite the fact that Derek didn't like him, there was something about Tyler that told John he could trust him with everything, even with the one person he loved and valued most.  
He chuckled at the ridiculousness of that thought: his mother and Tyler, what a joke. But hadn't it happened before? Hadn't he sent his own father back to protect his mother? His mother and Tyler, they would kill each other off first.  
Mulling over that idea, it appeared less and less strange. He had sent Tyler here for a reason and the first thing the man had done was take out a terminator who had targeted his mother. Immediately he wondered who would be the unidentifiable guest at ITBase? His mother? It appeared to be the most unlikely option because she would insist on joining the battle against the machines and he already knew there would be no way of stopping her? This Robin Baxter? Or was there again another option?  
The longer he thought about it, the more ludicrous his ideas became. It was clearly time to return to tracking down Sarkissian. He returned his attention back to his laptop, staring at the contents on the screen, at the picture of a young Tyler Devlin.  
"Why are you here, and not in the future?" He whispered his thoughts aloud.


	8. Chapter 7: Don't Ask Questions

**Chapter 7: Don't Ask Questions You Don't Want Answered**

It had been years since Sarah had smoked her last cigarette. After destroying the T-1000 and 'Uncle Bob' at the steel mill, John had asked her to quit and she had, but right now she was doing for a smoke. It would calm her strained nerves, make her mind drift into a mild numbness. If only Cameron's words didn't haunt her so much. _Because you died… two years ago. December 4, 2005, you died. Cancer._  
Lighting up a cigarette, inhaling the bitter but pleasurable smoke was out of the question. Just like drinking. Given her family history she would most likely have a natural predisposition to alcoholism.  
Besides she had to keep a clear mind. She had to keep thinking straight. A quick glance at the display of her cell phone told her it was close to 4 in the morning. Another night without any sleep, avoiding the nightmares that would come to her in her dreams.  
She looked at the cell phone, now lying next to her on the bed, again and wondered about Tyler. Would he pick up if she called him? Or would he ignore her, throwing the cell phone away?  
"Only one way to find out," she said to herself, picking up the cell phone and searching through the phone book for Cameron's number.  
Slowly she rose to her feet and walked to the window before she pressed the dial-button.  
"Yes," a man's voice answered gruffly.  
"Tyler, it's Sarah," she said softly, scanning the rooftops she could see from her window for any sign of activity.  
"No kidding. As if the name on the display hadn't given you away already."  
"Do you always have to be this hostile?" Her annoyance with the man was etching into her voice.  
"Very smart. Getting me a cell phone," he ignored her question. "You couldn't have known I'd answer."  
"I hoped you would."  
"Why?"  
"We need to talk," she stated firmly, looking up at the rooftops again.  
"No, we don't."  
Without so much as another word he ended the call, leaving her staring at her own phone in confusion. Why did the people John had sent back always insist on being so secretive, so stubborn? It drove her crazy.  
"You goddamn son of a bitch," she said through gritted teeth while she quickly pushed the dial-button twice.  
He didn't answer this time and Cameron's voice mail picked up. She ended the call, a wry smile forming on her lips. If he didn't want to talk over the phone, he left her no choice but to go see him.

Tyler stood at the edge of the rooftop, looking at the Connor house. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to her because he did but some things were better left unsaid and it was in everybody's best interest if he kept his distance.  
Meeting John in this time had felt weird, unnatural, to him and yet he could see the John Connor he had known shimmer in the boy. He had seen the boy put the cell phone in the pocket of his coat after a small argument with Cameron. Apparently this John had understood that sending Cameron after him would sort no effect, that she would lose track of him at one point.  
He wondered about John's motives for wanting to stay in touch with him. Had the boy done it for himself or for his mother? Tyler had always been very aware of the huge influence Sarah Connor had had on her son, and on him.  
After he had slipped the cell phone back in his pocket he returned his attention to the house. The machine walked back and forth, slipping out of his sight on occasion, as she kept watch over the Connors and Derek Reese. The lights in John's room were still on but he could see from his perch that the kid had lost the battle with sleep and had fallen asleep on his laptop.  
Tyler wished that John had been more specific in his briefing about this mission. Numerous mission objectives, very little information. Now he only knew that in two days a machine would make another attempt on John's life.  
It would have been so much easier if John had told him what would happen in two days but even though they were best friends, John had kept secrets from him, just like he had kept things a secret from John.  
"Couldn't you have found an easier spot to observe us from?" A woman's voice behind him.  
He whirled around and stared Sarah in the face, a little startled that she had come to look him up: "So Cameron could shake me from another tree? No, thanks, once is enough."  
Sarah sent him a wry smile: "Cameron is just Cameron."  
"No shit," he growled, turning to look at the house again, at the topic of this conversation.  
"Well, I wanted you to know that I'm sorry about it."  
"And you climbed all the way up here to tell me that?" His voice brimmed over with sarcasm. "Don't worry about it," he palliated. "I've been through a lot worse. Especially with rubber balls and tin cans on my tail."  
"Rubber balls?"  
"T-6double0's. Rubber-skinned infiltration units. Skynet's first attempt to fool us," he explained.  
He could hear her come closer: "Cameron said that you know everything there is to know about the terminators."  
"Hmm, I wouldn't know," he remarked. "If Skynet develops a newer model than the triple8's, I wouldn't know jack about it."  
"Wonderful," she grumbled. "How to crush someone's hope in just one sentence."  
"You know it's the truth," he defended. "Skynet already tried once with liquid metal boy."  
"The T-1000?" She asked in a whisper.  
Absently he touched his left shoulder: "What about it?"  
"Didn't you get to study it?" She countered with a question of her own.  
"One of a kind… literally. A high efficiency rate, developed by Skynet for interrogation and termination purposes. Its construction and development program was discontinued when it failed its mission in the past," he replied. "Skynet decided continuation of the 800 series was the best option," he paused. "The T-1000?"  
"Took a hot bath at a steel mill before deciding it really didn't like it," she told him as she came to stand next to him. He looked at her from the corner of his eye and smiled. She wasn't there for idle chat, but to get answers one way or another.

Derek sauntered into John's room and found his nephew using the keyboard of his laptop as a pillow. It brought a smile to his face. His nephew had many of his mother's traits but Derek could see some of his little brother back in John as well.  
He frowned when he accidentally looked out the window. There on the rooftop of the building across the street stood Sarah with Tyler.  
"Derek?" John mumbled sleepily, raising his head a little.  
"Hey, kid. Any luck with Sarkissian?" Derek asked, happy with the diversion.  
"Yeah, right," John yawned while he sat up and stretched himself.  
Derek went over to him and looked at the screen. He scratched his chin: "If that's Sarkissian, I'm the President of the United States."  
"Why is he on your list, Derek?" John asked out of the blue.  
"I didn't put him on it," Derek said slowly.  
"Don't lie. You hate each other's guts. He's on the list. Why?"  
"Some questions are better left unanswered, kid," Derek dodged the question.  
"Does it have to do with Robin Baxter?" John didn't relent.  
"Why do you have to bring her up?"  
"Because it's apparent she is what connects you. Who is she?"  
"You don't want to know, John," Derek answered darkly. "And it's for the best that you don't know."  
John looked away, out the window, smiling faintly when he saw his mother out on the roof with Tyler: "Should I call mom and tell her to ask Tyler about it?"  
Derek glared at his nephew: "Let it rest, John!"  
"I can't," John shook his head. "My mom isn't the only one who wants answers, Derek."  
"Fine!" Derek growled. "She's his mother!"

Tyler squinted.  
"Didn't you hear me?" Sarah asked annoyed because he stopped paying attention to her.  
"Something's wrong," he replied, grabbing the ledge and jumping off onto the balcony of the second floor.  
"What's wrong?" She called from the rooftop.  
"Derek, that's what's wrong," he answered, jumping over the barrier of the balcony. "He's a hothead, just like his brother. Capable of doing the stupidest things, but at least Kyle would stop and think once in a while."  
Tyler stumbled a little when he landed on the grass and broke into a run, without seeing traffic, with only one thing on his mind. Automatically he jumped and slid over the hood of a passing car, not even registering the furious driver.  
Derek wouldn't kill John but he could scar him for life with his knowledge of the future. He jumped over the fence and raced up the porch, forcing the door with his left shoulder, not slowing down. The door gave way with a sickening crack, causing Cameron to take a defensive stance immediately, identifying the possible threat.  
"You don't know what you've done!" Derek howled.  
Tyler ran even faster, slamming into the wall while turning a corner.  
"The kid doesn't know, Reese," Tyler said barely out of breath when he stormed into John's room.  
"He does now!" Derek seethed.  
"What did he tell you, John?" Tyler asked in a friendly manner.  
"That this Baxter woman is your mother," John squeaked visibly upset. "Is she?"  
Tyler pondered about his answer. Should he tell the truth or lie? He choose the latter: "No."  
"John, are you okay?" Sarah asked upon racing into the room, positioning herself between the two men and her son, ready to attack the first who would dare to even look at him. "Cameron?!"  
"Yes?" Cameron appeared in the door opening.  
"Get these two the hell out of my house," Sarah ordered. "Did Derek hurt you?" She asked her son, patting him down to check for injuries.  
"What?" John muttered, shocked beyond words. "No."  
"I guess you've finally outstayed your welcome," Tyler smirked when Cameron grabbed Derek roughly by the upper arm.  
"So did you!" Derek yelled, trying to yank himself free. "You're lucky that she has me in a vice!"  
"Want to put that theory to the test?" Tyler challenged. "You get to punch me once, I get to punch you once and to even things out I won't even use my good arm."


	9. Chapter 8: Fairy Tales That Do Come True

**Chapter 8: Fairy Tales That Do Come True**

_**...In the future there will be a very courageous young man… **_  
"TJ! Time to get up!"  
TJ opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a long moment. Today he didn't feel like getting up early. Today he didn't want to focus on his future. Today was going to be a bad day, like it had been on this date the past 8 years.  
"TJ!"  
"I'm up, dad!" He called back, glancing at the photo on his bedside table.  
Eight years since his mother had died in a car crash and each day he missed her more. She could tell the most fantastic tales of a futuristic world in which robots ruled. Tales in which she had made him a hero, a champion for humanity. How he would fight alongside another hero, she had named John Connor. But he had liked the one where she had given his heroic character a robot-arm best. Her feeling for detail, her vivid imagination, each night a new tale. She always had time for him, dropping what she was doing when he would come home from school, unlike his father with whom he had a difficult bond. His father, a biochemistry professor at UCLA, thought he was a dreamer, despite his IQ.  
_**...In the future there will be a very courageous young man and his name is…**_  
He wished he could be that champion his mother had described in her tales. It would show his father once and for all that he could be a hero and not a slacker. His father had been pushing him to follow him in his footsteps and pursue a career in physical science.  
It wasn't what TJ wanted. Thanks to his mother's tales he wanted to enrol in Computer Science, something his father couldn't appreciate. Night after night they had fought about his higher education until his father had finally given in.  
"TJ!" He could hear that his father was getting impatient.  
He got up quickly, grabbed his clothes of the floor and rushed into the bathroom down the hall. At least he could give the impression he was getting ready for the long day ahead.

"You're not hungry?" Sarah asked concerned when she noticed her son had barely touched his pancakes.  
"Geez, I wonder why," John replied, pushing his full plate aside. "What the hell is going on? Who lied? Derek or Devlin?"  
"Neither one," Cameron said from across the table. "Most likely person to lie: Lieutenant General Devlin."  
"But you just said," Sarah began, taking John's plate away. "That neither one lied."  
"He knows how to beat her poly," John explained in an angry voice.  
"Let's assume for a moment that Devlin did lie. Why would he lie?" Sarah pondered aloud.  
"Why do people lie, mom? Because they don't want others to know."  
"People lie for a variety of reasons," Cameron stated. "It could be a secret. It could be harmful for the person they are lying to. It could be he was protecting someone."  
"I swear if you start reciting the dictionary again I AM going to hit you," John warned her.  
"I wasn't," Cameron tilted her head a little. "Or it could be a combination of the aforementioned possibilities?" She offered.  
Sarah took a sip of her coffee and nodded in agreement: "I think it's the last one… Out on the roof he kept stonewalling me."  
"And you didn't push him off the roof? Quite an improvement, mom."  
Sarah chuckled. She could always rely on her son to make some funny comment to lighten the mood. "John Connor," she pretended to gasp. "I am not that violent."  
John grinned from ear-to-ear: "You pushed Cameron out the window on the fifth floor was it just that time of month for you?" He teased her, dodging the tea towel she threw at him with a fake look of shock on her face.  
"What do you mean with that time of month?" Cameron inquired. "I don't understand."  
And of course, Sarah could always count on Cameron to kill the good mood.  
"Complicated human stuff," John answered quickly. "You wouldn't understand."  
"I have detailed files on human anatomy. I might understand."  
"Cameron," John sighed.

_**...And in the past there lived a very courageous woman…**_  
"TJ, for God's sake," his father said. "Don't slouch."  
TJ continued to stare out of the car window, looking at the pedestrians, the cars.  
"Didn't you hear me, young man," his father shook him by the shoulder.  
"I heard you, alright," TJ mumbled, making no effort to sit up.  
"Sometimes I wonder where you got that attitude. You certainly didn't get it from me," his father grumbled.  
"Wow, it's the first time today you made a reference to mom," TJ said sharply. "Indirectly but still… It's good to know you haven't completely forgotten about her."  
"What's this about, son? Is this about Cathy? I told you upfront I wasn't going to take your bullshit anymore where it concerns my girlfriends."  
"Right," TJ snorted. "You know what day it is, dad?"  
"What do you want, TJ? I can't mourn her death forever. She wouldn't want that because she loved us too much for that."  
_**...And in the past there lived a very courageous woman and her name was…**_  
Another of TJ's favourite characters in his mother's fantastic tales was a strong, courageous woman who would give birth to his brother in arms in the future, turned into a legend by his mother's passionate way of telling. It was obvious she had been his mother's favourite character too.  
Was that what made him a dreamer? Because he would fantasize about the stories his mother had told him, trying to turn them into mental images?  
"You haven't listened to a word I said," his father's voice derailed his train of thoughts.  
"Should I have?" TJ asked. "Each year you give me the same speech. About how mom would've wanted us to move on. Maybe you've moved on, dad, but I can't."  
"Goddamnit, Ty," his father growled. "It's been 8 years. You can't hold onto the past forever. There will come a day you will need to let go. You have such a bright future ahead of you… One that doesn't include those ridiculous machines your mother was so fond of telling you about."  
"I know, dad, you've told me a million times," TJ sighed defeated.

"Do you think he's still around?" John asked when he was finally alone with his mother.  
They had sent Cameron out to buy a new door, since Tyler had splintered the old one on his way in.  
"He's back on the roof alright," Sarah answered. "I've seen him."  
"So he didn't tell you anything? Tried torturing the guy?"  
"You're in a silly mood today," she observed.  
"What else can I do? Go sit in a corner and cry my eyes out," he shrugged his shoulders.  
"There's something different about you. Can't figure out what though."  
"It scared the hell out of me. When Derek really lost it like that. Like he blamed me for everything."  
"He does."  
"But why? I haven't done anything yet. Well, nothing of real importance. You and 'Uncle Bob' blew up Cyberdyne Systems, I was only there."  
"You exist, John. Nothing is more important than that," she stated firmly, turning to face him.  
"So I get to be the great General John Connor," he mocked, using his hands to emphasize his point. "Whooptie-fuckin-doo."  
"Language, John," she warned him.  
"What are you going to do about it?" He challenged. "Give me a good spanking or have Cameron give me one each time I use the F-word?"  
"Don't tempt me, John Connor," she glared at him. "I am still your mother-"  
"You sure?" He interrupted her. "Didn't you sign a piece of paper stating otherwise?"  
"Go to your room!" She seethed, pointing in the direction of his room.  
"Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"  
"Go to your room, John! NOW!" She yelled furiously.

"How's the kid?" Tyler asked curiously, not looking away from the house.  
She had tried so hard to sneak up to him but used to picking up on even the smallest little noise he had heard her.  
"How did you know it was me? And not Derek coming to throw you off the roof?" Sarah asked surprised.  
"Derek won't come near me if he knows what's good for him. And I know your walk. It was easy," he answered.  
"I wish you'd stop doing that," she sighed.  
"Doing what?"  
"Say things like that... Pretending to know me when you don't," she replied.  
"How's the kid?" He repeated his question in an attempt to avoid a conversation he wasn't willing to have.  
"In a rare mood. One moment he's joking and teasing me, the next he's defying me. Instable."  
He turned a little to look at her: "He's just in shock."  
"No, it's about more than that. I made a huge mistake a few years ago. The mistake of a lifetime… He found out a while ago and just now he threw it back in my face."  
He smiled faintly, returning his attention to the house again: "So? People are flawed. They make mistakes. I know I've made a few in my life."  
She remained silent for a long time: "Have you ever made a mistake so bad of which you know you will regret it the rest of your life?"  
"Yes, I did," he breathed.  
"What did you do?" She asked interested.  
"Why do you want to know?" He frowned, squinting when he saw a car approach.  
"I don't know. Maybe yours is worse than mine and I'd feel a little better," she tried to make light of the situation.  
"John will forgive you, Sarah. It'll take him a while to realize it but he will understand why you signed that those papers. That you hadn't given up on him. That you only did it with his best interest at heart."  
He looked at her again and could see she was taken aback by his statement. Anger flared to life in her green eyes, rapidly turning into a full blown inferno. She was going to let him have it now.

_**...In the future there will be a very courageous young man and his name is Tyler Jess Devlin. **_  
_**And in the past there lived a very courageous woman and her name was Sarah Connor. **_  
_**One day they would meet...**_


	10. Chapter 9: The Lady Of IntelliTech Base

**Chapter 9: The Lady Of IntelliTech Base**

John didn't have a clue on how to make things right again with his mother. He hadn't meant it, only said in the heat of the moment. He had felt so torn up inside after what had happened in the early hours of the morning and because of that he had lashed out at her.  
A bittersweet victory.  
He got up from his chair and walked over to the window. Tyler and his mother were out on the roof and by the looks of it his mother had decided to take it out on Tyler. Should he call her, telling her if she had to yell at someone it should be him and not Tyler? Would it help to soothe his own conscience?  
He had to do something because his mother could easily go from yelling to hitting and Tyler didn't look like the kind of man who would take physical abuse from a woman, or anyone else for that matter. Either way someone was bound to get hurt if he didn't act soon.  
What could he do? She had sent him to his room and by the tone of her voice the stupidest thing he could do right now was leave his room. He bit the nail of his thumb nervously, trying to come up with a solution.  
Cameron's cell phone, it suddenly dawned on him. His mother wouldn't take his calls, but maybe Tyler would. He rushed to his desk and searched for his cell phone. It was a good thing he had Cameron's number on speed dial.  
"Come on. Pick up. Pick up," he begged, going over to the window again to see what was going on.  
He watched as Tyler reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out the cell phone. But instead of answering it, he held it up for John to see and then tossed it away.  
"No, no, no, you stupid idiot. You don't know what you've gotten yourself into," he mumbled.  
The memory of dinner the night before popped into his mind. Tyler had challenged his mother openly without fear. It should've eased John's mind but it only added to his worries.  
Why was Tyler in the least bit afraid of his mother? It couldn't only be his lack of fear for the machines. The only reason John could think of why Tyler was able to withstand hurricane Sarah Connor was the possibility that he had dealt with her fits of rage before.  
Answers leading to more questions. Had he been mistaken? Was his mother the mysterious woman of ITBase?

"Connor wants to see you," a man in a dishevelled soldier's uniform informed Tyler.  
"What does he want now?" Tyler growled while he checked his bandaged hand again.  
"I don't know, but he said it was important that you would come and see him straight away," the soldier answered.  
Tyler rose to his feet. What was so important that John didn't grant him some recovery time? Hadn't he heard about his run-in with the machine this past night? About his narrow escape? For 2 years they had been fighting the machines, going from one place to another. Two years had gone by since Judgment Day and everywhere you looked you saw those metal monsters. There was no escaping them. For 2 very long years he and John had been trying to put together some kind of resistance to form a fist at the robot's rule.  
Tyler trudged down the hallways of their latest hide-out, an abandoned warehouse on Naples Island. He was in no hurry to get to John, giving him time to remember better times. Dwelling on the past was an escape for him from this world, but he didn't do it as much as he used to, in the early days after the nuclear apocalypse.  
Oh, how he had loved his mother's most fantastic stories about a world in ruins with humans fighting the robots for a better existence. He didn't love those stories anymore. How could he? In a split second they had become a cruel and painful reality.  
"TJ," John stood waiting for him at the end of the hallway. "Com'on, man. Hurry up!"  
He sure sounded impatient, Tyler noted: "What is it, John?"  
"Come," John gestured that he should follow him. "I've got something to show you," he grinned broadly.

Tyler kept quiet, letting the storm of words pass. She needed this. She needed to get this out of her system. He knew that John had been stupid by making that one remark out of spiteful rebellion, but he also knew that John was feeling sorry this very moment.  
"Can you at least look at me when I'm yelling at you?!"  
He turned to face her but he didn't look at her, his eyes finding something to stare at in the distance. The storm seemed to intensify when she noticed he was still avoiding visual contact. From experience he knew that it could be the last straw, that the next thing she would do was hit him. The idea of being ignored had always driven her into rages of insanity.  
It wasn't that he wanted to ignore her. It was more an absolute necessity. He needed to guard himself against her. He couldn't afford to make the same mistakes all over again.

John pushed the door open and smiled wryly: "I have a favour to ask of you, TJ," he began.  
Tyler gulped slowly when he saw a familiar figure by the window. He had never thought that he would see her again. Not after she had gone missing a few days after Judgment Day.  
"Hello, Tyler," the woman said warmly after she had turned slowly towards him.  
"You're the only one I can trust to keep her safe," John continued.  
"I don't like to be blindsided, John," Tyler's voice trembled.  
"Neither do I, TJ. But I didn't have a choice."  
Tyler remained silent as the woman walked up to him. "It's been a long time, Ty," she whispered, extending her hand to him.  
"Yes," he nodded. "It has been… But I don't understand, John. Why me?"  
"Because I can trust you with her life," John's answer was simple. "Because I know that you will not tell a soul or machine about her existence. Because I know that you would give your life to protect her."  
"You shouldn't put so much trust in me, John," Tyler protested. "Weren't you the one telling me over and over again that we have to distrust each other, as it is our only defence against betrayal?"  
"I did, but I know you will never betray me or our cause."  
"And how can you be so goddamn sure I will not betray her?"  
"Trust me, I know," John replied.

And I messed up, Tyler thought darkly. I didn't betray her, but I couldn't protect her in the end either.  
"Hey!" He growled, regaining his balance quickly.  
Sarah grinned victoriously, the look of murder still present on her face: "It's what you get for ignoring me."  
"You pushed me!"  
"Be glad that's all I did."  
"You want to fight me?" He asked. "Because that can be arranged."  
"Is that supposed to be a threat?" She retorted, taking a wild swing at him.  
He blocked her oncoming fist by lifting his left arm and quickly grabbed her by the wrist: "You don't want to do this," he whispered in her ear after pulling her in a bear hug so she couldn't move.  
"Stand still!" She seethed, trying to kick him.  
"So you can stomp on my feet. I know you, Connor. I know how you fight."  
"I bet you don't know this one," she was beyond all reason and anger.  
Her knee crashed into his and he grunted: "Knee to the groin."  
"Next time I won't miss," she panted as the struggle to break free from his firm hold quickly seeped her from all energy.  
"I know," he said smugly.  
"I told you to stop doing that," she snapped. "I told you to stop pretending you know me."  
"But I do know you. I am what I am today because of you."  
She stopped struggling and looked him in the eye: "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"  
He took a deep breath, slowly releasing his hold on her, and looked away: "You taught me everything," he lowered his head. "You turned me into the defender of the mankind in the stories my mother would tell me."  
"But I don't understand. Cameron said I had died 2 years ago," she muttered utterly confused.  
"With every little change in the past, the future can be greatly affected. One word can make the difference between life and death, between good and evil. Things may appear the same but underneath the surface be completely different," he explained.  
"I still don't understand," she complained, frustration etched into her voice. "What's your connection to me?"  
He closed his eyes and contemplated his answer: "I was assigned to protect you."  
"I don't mean now," she grumbled annoyed.  
"In the future."  
"You mean?"  
"Yes, you were the Lady of IntelliTech Base. John thought you'd be safe there, but I guess he was mistaken."


	11. Chapter 10: Peace Of Mind

**Chapter 10: Peace Of Mind**

Sarah did what she always did when her nerves were raw and strained to the end: she cleaned her weapons. It was a habit she had picked up during her paramilitary training in Central America. It soothed her.  
She still had so many questions to ask, to be answered but Tyler had returned to stonewalling her immediately. As if he had already said too much.  
"It would be more effective if the Lieutenant General stayed with us," Cameron stated, putting the door she was carrying under her arm on the floor.  
Sarah jumped to her feet startled, knocking back the chair she had been sitting on, and whirled around: "I think he's more in his place on that damn rooftop."  
"It's not important what you think," Cameron said while she began to remove the remains of the door. "Tactical analysis show it's more effective if he's here, now that Derek Reese is gone."  
"Do you actually know how to replace a door?"  
"No, but the shop clerk told me it's a piece of cake with the right tools."  
Sarah put her hand over her mouth and stifled the need to burst into laughter: "And do you have the right tools?"  
"Is that sarcasm?" Cameron inquired. "Is sarcasm fun?"  
"It can be," Sarah laughed heartily.  
Cameron had been staying with them for a quite a while and one would think that with her learning ability she had picked up on certain things by now. That she had learned more about human interaction and social skills but it was like she had stalled in her development. Thank you for explaining could be heard in the Connor household numerous times a day and Sarah was grateful to John that he had finally asked Cameron to use other phrases which she now often did.  
"I get it," Cameron said.  
"No, you don't,' Sarah giggled.  
"Sarcasm, right?"  
"Mom?" John asked quietly, standing in the door opening of the living room.  
"I thought I told you to stay in your room," Sarah looked at her son sharply, gulping a few times before scraping her throat.  
"I'm so sorry, mom," John squeaked. "I don't know what came over me. I'm really sorry."  
Her heart softened at the sad look on his face. For some reason she could never stay angry with him for very long.  
"Apology accepted," Sarah smiled warmly. "Come here, silly," she held out her arms to him.  
"I'm really sorry," John whispered, accepting his mother's hug.  
She heard his sigh of relief, feeling him rest his cheek on her shoulder: "I know, John."

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!" The man howled furiously, tears of utter rage trickling down his cheeks. "How could you do this?!" The man sounded broken this time.  
"I had no other choice."  
"Yes, you had! You should've let me die!"  
"TJ, I know you're upset."  
"Fuck you, Connor!"  
John took a good look at his long time friend and brother in arms, at the robot arm which had replaced his missing left arm.  
"It's a worthless piece of crap."  
"Give it time, TJ. Once the nanoattrioids have settled in-"  
"Easy for you to say! You don't have to deal this continuous headache, as if your brain is literally on fire!" Tyler seethed.  
"It'll wear off," John said in a reassuring manner.  
"You don't fucking know that!"  
"Trust me, I know."  
"I did trust you, Connor, and look what it got me," Tyler gave the robot arm a firm push for good measure. "A fucking tracking device for Skynet."  
"It's clean, TJ," John said impatiently. "At least trust me when I tell you that the rest of its previous owner has been destroyed."  
"Right," Tyler said patronizingly. "Like I got a reason to trust you ever again."  
"You will again in good time, my friend."  
"I'm not your friend, Connor, not anymore, not after this," Tyler shook his head fiercely.  
John had known of Tyler's destiny since his teens because Tyler had told him himself, and despite this knowledge he had left Tyler in charge of protecting his mother, he had sent his mother to stay at IntelliTech Base. She wouldn't have been safe at Home Plate or any of the other bases because John had seen the most courageous men fall apart under the continuous strain of combat, but never Tyler. If he hadn't known of the future, he would still have picked him for the job because Tyler would never crack under pressure, because Tyler would always try to do the right thing or would die trying.  
"I know you're angry right now-"  
Tyler snorted with contempt: "Who says I'm angry?" He interrupted him. "I just want to rip your fucking head off!"

The burning feeling had eventually subsided, just like John had told him it would. Once the nanoattrioids had been embedded in his brain, he had gained full control over the robot arm. And yet the headaches had been childish pains compared to what he had gone through during skin and muscle regeneration.  
Tyler couldn't think of anything more painful than that. On numerous occasions he had reached for his gun, wanting to blow his brains out because the pain drove him into frenzied madness, but Robin had always stopped him.  
He scanned the horizon for abnormalities. A kid on a bicycle came riding down the street and he tensed up when the boy stopped in front of the Connor house. Anyone he didn't know could pose a threat.  
The front door opened and John came walking out: "Hey, Morris."  
"I thought I'd come by and see if you wanted to hang out or something," the boy called Morris said.  
"Neh, I got grounded," John chuckled.  
"That sucks, man… And your sister?"  
"She's grounded too."  
"What did you do?"  
"We snuck out to go to a party. Mom found out. We got grounded," John explained.  
Good call, Tyler thought amused.  
"There was a party? Where?"  
"One of Cam's friends. Parents away for a couple of days, last minute invite. You know."  
"Oh... Well, gimme a call when you're out of jail and we can hang out then."  
Morris turned his bike around and rode back in the direction he had come from. Tyler saw John was looking at him so he gave him the thumbs up, accompanied by a smile.

Mom thought you might be thirsty," John said, holding out a bottle of water to Tyler. "She said it's hot on the roof, and Cam thinks you're lying."  
"About what?" Tyler asked before taking a big gulp of the water.  
"It's nothing," John shrugged his shoulders, sitting down on the roof at a safe distance from the edge.  
"It's gotta be something," Tyler hiccupped from drinking the water too eagerly. "You wouldn't have said anything if it was nothing."  
"It's just… We had just started to settle in a bit and now everything's twisted again. Derek blows a couple of fuses, you take out a terminator with your bare hands. There's obviously a lot of hate between you, and we still haven't stopped Skynet."  
Tyler chuckled and sat down on the edge: "Come here, kid," he gestured that John should come closer.  
"I'd rather stay here. Mom would kill me if-"  
"If you want answers, you sit down next to me. If you don't, just go away."  
"But mom doesn't-" John protested.  
"It's time you start to make your own decisions, kid. If you don't, then we're all screwed," Tyler remarked bitterly. "You can't keep depending on your dear mommy to fix things."  
John crawled to the edge, swung his legs over and looked at Tyler expectantly.  
"What do you want to know?" Tyler asked, playing absently with the bottle in his hands.  
"Why aren't you scared of my mom?"  
"What?" Tyler grinned amused. "You could've asked anything and that's the first question you ask. Why?"  
"I don't know," John answered honestly. "Because she can be scarier than a terminator out to kill me, I guess."  
"True," Tyler nodded in agreement.  
"Do you, er, or did you know her?"  
"Yeah, I did. Quite a remarkable woman if I may say so."  
"What's she like in the future? I mean that's where you know her from, right?"  
"She died two years ago," Tyler stated with a grim expression on his face.  
"What?"  
"On December 4th, 20-25," Tyler explained.  
"How? Was it… cancer?"  
"No, unless you would like to call an army of heavy combat chassis units cancer. She died fighting during the siege… The way that woman could wield any weapon."  
"Sounds like you are, were impressed," John remarked.  
"Who wouldn't be with a woman carrying around a 20-Watt Phased Plasma Rifle?"  
"A what?"  
"You know she favors shotguns, well, it's a weapon kinda like it but then from the future. Extremely painful to get shot with," Tyler reached back and lifted his T-shirt a little.  
John shivered when he looked at the scars: "Mom did that?"  
"Neh, the robot I stole the rifle from did. Your mom did this," Tyler pulled his shirt up a little further. "You'd think from all the guns she'd fired she'd know how to fire a plasma rifle," he added with a crooked grin.  
"You've seen a lot of combat, haven't you?"  
"I've seen too much, kid. Too many battles, too many bodies, too many machines," Tyler sighed.  
"What will I be like?" John asked hesitantly, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.  
"A cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch, but you have to be," Tyler answered honestly. "We can't be lead by a soft-hearted wimp who's afraid to make his own decisions and turns to his mommy every step of the way."  
"But Cam says I will have many friends in the future," John objected, hurt by Tyler's tone of voice.  
"Yeah, right," Tyler said through gritted teeth. "They think you're their friend. Hell, I even thought it, but then you betrayed me."  
John tried swallow down the lump that was forming in his throat: "What…? What do you mean?"  
"Where I'm from, the needs of the living outweigh the needs of the dead. If a brother in arms is critically injured, you leave him behind in order for you to survive. Or if you can stomach it, you grant him a mercy kill. You did neither to me. You let me be brought to Home Plate… See this scarring, kid," Tyler pulled the fabric aside. "That's what you get for losing your arm and gaining a robot arm."  
"So what Derek's said is true? You have a cyborg's arm?"  
"Yeah, really advanced one too. 867, first real series with coltan."  
John cowered at Tyler's cruel sarcasm. He began to feel sick to his stomach when the realization of what kind of man he would become hit him full force. Somehow it had always sounded so heroic, but he had never fully realized it would come with a incredible toll. He looked over the edge. If he jumped, would he die? He could end it here and now.  
"Don't," Tyler barked and John felt a hand close around his left upper arm. He hadn't even noticed that he had been leaning over the edge too much: "I'm too goddamn important, right?" He fumed.  
"No, you would only confirm my point by taking the easy way out. Besides this building isn't high enough for the fall to be deadly. You'd probably only break an arm or a leg."  
"Mom will be so pissed at us," John muttered, trying to smile a little at the thought of his mother yelling at them both for being so reckless.  
"She'd skin me alive," Tyler quipped, giving John a good-natured push against the shoulder. "And she'd pamper you. All those nice meals."  
John pretended to gag: "She's a terrible cook. I'm still in shock, no, in awe that you actually asked for seconds."  
"I was hungry. You eat what you can get your hands on in the future."  
"So you didn't like it?"  
"No, I did, but I'm not picky like you," Tyler teased.  
John laughed and gave Tyler a friendly slap on the shoulder.  
"Sorry," he apologized quickly when Tyler winced. "Forgot you fell out of a tree."  
"And I sent you flying… So we're even."  
"Tyler?"  
"Yeah, kid?"  
"Why won't you call me John?"  
John watched as Tyler ran a hand through his hair and waited patiently for him to answer. It was obvious Tyler was thinking about his answer.  
"Is it because of future-John?" He offered hopefully, hoping it would help Tyler form his answer.  
Tyler smiled faintly but then his eyes became hard without a hint of emotion: "Maybe. You, as in the future-John, did this to me," he raised his left arm. "Can't say I've forgiven you, or him."  
"So you hate me?"  
"Neh, kid. Never will, no matter what I will say now or in the future. People say, do the stupidest things in the heat of the moment. Just remember that."  
"I know."  
"Oh, yes, you pulled a Connor on me. Drive your mother into a rage and then have her take it out on me. Nice work."  
"That's why you aren't scared of her, because I've done it before, I mean-"  
"I know what you mean. And yes, you will do it numerous times. The best one being getting caught and sent to Century. I had to endure hurricane Sarah Connor for at least 2 days."  
John grinned broadly: "Those are the exact words I'd use to describe her in a fit of rage."  
He knew he already had in thoughts. Suddenly his cell phone began to beep. He took it of the back pocket of his jeans and looked at the display: "Mom," he greeted after flipping it open to answer. "Yes, I'll be down soon… No, not the shortest way… I'll ask," he said. "Uhm, Tyler. Mom wants to know if you want to join us for dinner?"  
"Nothing beats a home cooked meal," Tyler remarked cheerfully.  
"Yes, mom… We'll be right there."


	12. Chapter 11: Awakening

_**Chapter 11: Awakenings**_

"You do have a stomach of steel," John laughed, letting himself fall into the recliner. "I don't know if I have to be in shock or awe that you can stomach mom's cooking skills... Not even Derek liked it."  
Tyler walked up over to the window, pushed the curtains aside and observed the quiet evening street.  
"So you know, er knew, my mom in the future?" John asked when Tyler didn't react.  
"That's right," Tyler said matter-of-factly.  
"You said that she was a remarkable woman who could wield any weapon," John offered in the hopes Tyler would take the bait for another revealing conversation.  
Tyler looked over his shoulder and grinned mischievously: "She was."  
"Were you... Were you two involved?"  
"In what, kid?"  
"I mean... did you and my mom have a thing?"  
"I don't understand," Tyler answered, turning back slowly to look at the street again. "A thing? Involved? I was assigned to protect her."  
"So no romance?"  
Tyler began to laugh heartily: "I don't know what kind of ideas you have about the future world, kid. There's no place for romantic heroism."  
"I never thought that," John said fiercely.  
Tyler turned to look at John again: "Oh really, and why did I have to keep you from plunging to a certain broken bone, kid? This is the future," he yanked his shirt over his head and showed John the numerous scars on his stomach, chest and back. "This is what it will be like. You fight, survive, no emotions. It's either life or death. And you know what, kid?"  
John gulped nervously: "What?" He mumbled.  
"These scars aren't even the worst. The ones on your soul... The lost battles, the daily body counts, the people who you have seen die on the battlefields... When I look at the people in this street, how they go about doing their things, worrying about trivial things... If only they knew a fragment of what I know, if they had seen what I have seen they wouldn't be so fucking careless with each other, with their belongings, with themselves. They wouldn't take everything for granted!"  
John, who had been slouching in the recliner, sat up straight at the sheer volume of Tyler's voice.  
"What's going on?" Sarah came running into the living room.  
"Nothing," Tyler snorted angrily.  
"John?" Sarah looked at her son. "You okay?"  
"It's my own fault, mom," John said a little tearfully, quickly wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes.  
"You," Sarah pointed at Tyler. "I swear-"  
"What?" Tyler asked defiantly. "You're gonna swear that you will going to rip my head if I have the stones to ever yell at your son again? Pamper him again so he doesn't have to take responsibility for his actions, because he has his precious mommy to run to. What has the kid ever achieved on his own?"  
"You don't know shit, Tyler. You don't know half of what's going on!" Sarah didn't suppress the anger in her voice.  
"Really, Connor?" Tyler sniggered.  
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked taken aback by his attitude.  
"You think that in the 12 years I was assigned to protect you we never talked? Never reflected back on the past? Your favorite pastime was ryno'ing me, I admit, especially after you left active field operations but we had long talks too... It's time to let the boy find his own path, Sarah."  
"So he can become a goddamn bastard like you?" Sarah growled furiously.  
"It's inevitable, Connor. He has to become even worse than me, otherwise miss priss there won't stand a chance when the machines come. You must stop protecting him and let him earn his battle scars," Tyler explained.  
"He's learning: against my wishes he tracked a shipload of coltan and stole it from under Skynet's nose," Sarah defended her son.  
"Having trouble with driving stick-shift, I know... And it immediately proves my point."  
"You're even worse than Cameron with her 'not this John'- routine," Sarah heaved a deep sigh of annoyance. "Who do you think put that into her program?" Tyler asked, his voice brimming over with sarcasm. "Three guesses left."  
"Do you have to be so antagonizing towards everybody?" John jumped to his feet in anger.  
Tyler cocked his head a little to the side and looked at John curiously, a faint smile playing on his lips: "What are you going to do about it, kid? Send your mommy after me? So she can fix it? Again?"  
John stormed over to Tyler to tackle him but the latter simply sidestepped him and grabbed him by the T-shirt: "My, my, I didn't know you had in you, kid," he grinned, easily dodging John's wild swing at him when he whirled him around.  
"Stand still, you goddamn son of a bitch!" John seethed beside himself with anger as he tried to hit Tyler who evaded his punches with great ease.  
"Why do you Connors insist on me standing still?" Tyler laughed, ducking for another wild swing. "Think the machines will stand still in hand-to-hand combat?"  
John was surprised how light a big man like Tyler was on his feet, quickly ducking and dodging the punches he threw at him: "Fuck you!" He growled furiously, getting more and more frustrated with Tyler. "Now we're talking, kid," Tyler chuckled amused. "Come on, give it your best shot," he gestured that John should punch him.  
"OW!" John howled when Tyler blocked his punch with his left arm.  
Tears trickled down his cheeks from anger and frustration. His hand hurt immensely but he couldn't back down now. If he would retreat from the fight now, everything Tyler had said to them was true. He'd be a coward for turning to his mother. He'd be a weakling. He yelped in pain when Tyler blocked another punch with his left arm. His right hand was on fire and it felt like he had broken every bone in it.  
"Enough!" Tyler ordered when John got ready for a third punch he would have to block with his left arm. "Go put some ice on it, kid. It'll reduce the swelling."  
"I'm not finished yet!" John seethed but Tyler had him by the upper arms before he could take a swing.  
"I said: enough," Tyler hissed, shaking him roughly.  
"I'm John Connor! You better listen to me, jackass!" John growled.  
Tyler burst into laughter: "I'm not Cameron, John. I'm human, and not programmed to follow orders. But it's good to see some tiny bit of the John Connor I know in you. Now go put some ice on it! Go!"

"What the hell were you thinking, Devlin?" Sarah asked furiously after John had left the living room.  
"The kid needs an awakening. From the few conversations I've had with him I distinctly got the impression he has the complete wrong idea of his role in the future. Silly heroics stuff. He is willing to fight but for all the wrong reasons. He seems to think that he's supposed to be a hero. That he will do all these wonderful heroic things that will turn him into the stuff of legends."  
"How can you know? You hardly know John," Sarah glared at him.  
"I don't know this John very well, true, but I do know John. We were friends, brothers in arms. This John would never have done this," Tyler showed her the scars of the replacement surgery. "No matter how much I resent the guy for doing this to me, he will have to do it to the other me again."  
"Because you're so goddamn important right. You couldn't even safe me in the future," Sarah snapped.  
Tyler's eyes narrowed to slits and Sarah worried that she had crossed the line. That there would be no more tomorrow for her because he would strangle her in a fit of rage. She would need to let go of all of the pent up anger inside because one false word or move could cause him to go berserk.  
"You don't know what the hell you're talking about," he said darkly, clenching and unclenching his hands at his sides. "I didn't betray ITBase. I didn't give up the hidden exits. We were this close to getting out!"  
"You know who betrayed IntelliTech, don't you?" She asked slowly. "John sent you here to prevent it, right?"  
"It's classified information," Tyler said in a formal tone. "You better go see how your boy's doing."

"So did you yell at him, mom?" John asked when he noticed his mother coming into the kitchen.  
"I wanted to," Sarah came up to her son and took the icepack from his hand. "It's going to be pretty bruised but I don't think it's broken," she quickly assessed the swelling of his hand.  
"What do you mean? You wanted to?"  
"I said something really stupid to him and he looked like he was about to kill me," she answered slowly.  
John chuckled amused: "Smart, mom."  
"So how does the hand feel?" She took his hand and looked at it from all angles: "Just keep it iced."  
There was a knock on the doorpost and both looked up to see Tyler standing in the door opening: "How's the hand, kid?" He nodded to John's right hand.  
"It stings like hell," John mumbled shyly.  
"You'll see worse. You know you're one crazy son of a gun in the future. The only one left who is always willing to risk his own life to save others. When the brothers Reese got trapped at Trash Ruins, you gathered your best men and you went in, guns blazing. Man, what a sight to see," Tyler said with admiration. "We taught those tinheads a lesson that night."  
"You got to be kidding me, right?" John looked at him sharply.  
"What?" Tyler countered, folding his arms across his chest.  
"You can't do that, you know," John said vehemently.  
"What?"  
Sarah began to laugh: "Don't be hard on him, John. It's his way of apologizing. Isn't it, Tyler?"  
"Whatever," Tyler grumbled. "I better get back on the roof. It's getting dark out."  
"Why do you insist on staying on that roof when you can stay here?" John asked curiously.  
Tyler opened his mouth and shut it again immediately. John wondered what the reason could be for Tyler's now obvious hesitation.  
"Because I will have a better overview from the rooftop," Tyler finally said, turned around and left.


	13. Chapter 12: Reflections & Revelations

**Chapter 12: Reflections & Revelations**

TJ Devlin leaned back in his desk chair and once again felt relieved that his father had finally accepted his career choice. He turned his head a little and looked at the first computer he had ever owned, a gift from his mother when he had turned 4, a dinosaur compared to modern day computers, but he knew that he could never part with it.  
His mother had been kind and caring but he had seen another side of her as well. One that still worried him to this day, one he would never be able to ask her to explain. His eyes drifted to the pictures next to his computer screens. She could have been a gorgeous woman if she hadn't been scarred by something that had happened to her in the past, another thing she had been extremely secretive about.  
He had tried to find out about her and her past but the only substantial thing he had discovered didn't make sense. While hacking he had come across a Robin Baxter that fitted the things his mother had told him about her but this Robin was only 8 years old. He had tried asking his father about it but his father had shrugged his shoulders and had told him he simply didn't know.  
For a long time TJ had thought his father had been lying to him but as time went by it became clear that his father had indeed known little about his mother. Hadn't Thomas Devlin wanted to know about his wife or had he been too occupied with pursuing his career in biochemistry to care?  
His father's excuse to avoid conversations about his mother was to tell him that it was time to move on, that it had no use to dwell on the past, but lately things didn't add up anymore. He had become victim of violent nightmares of a world sketched by the words of his mother. Trying to talk about it with his father would be pointless because his father would blame it on his vivid imagination and would tell him for the umpteenth time he was a dreamer, lost in fictional worlds that could never exist.  
He wished he could talk to someone about it, someone who knew how he felt and what he was going through, someone like his mother had been. He looked at his favorite picture of his mother again and smiled sadly. He wished she was here. Telling him stories of his favorite heroes, how they would fight the rule of the machine together, her voice a comforting whisper.

John didn't understand Tyler's motives, that much was clear to him. Tyler had provoked him into a fit of rage, one he hadn't experienced before and yet as the adrenaline thundered through his veins he had like it, like it had triggered something. Was that why Tyler was here? To push his buttons, to wake him up? A deep sigh rolled over his lips and he looked up at the roof again, at the dark figure keeping watch over the house.  
"It would be tactically better if he stayed here," Cameron said behind him.  
John whirled around, clutching his chest in shock: "I wish you'd stop doing that. You're going to give me a heart-attack one of these days and who will save mankind then."  
"You'll live," Cameron stated.  
"Do you know him?" John turned around and nodded towards the roof of the building across the street.  
"Yes, and you know him too," Cameron replied.  
"But I don't," John protested. "He's an enigma… Don't start reciting the dictionary," he quickly added when he saw Cameron open her mouth.  
"He has to be… It's his fate."  
John sighed again and shook his head: "So many people, so many fates."  
"I don't have a fate," Cameron remarked.  
"But you're not human. I mean, you're a machine, you have a mission. It could be considered as fate," John said slowly.  
"Thank you-"  
"Nuh-huh, we had agreed on something," John interrupted her.  
"I understand," Cameron corrected herself.  
"So you know nothing about him?"  
"Only what I have already told you."  
"Can I trust him?"  
"Yes, you trust him enough to let him keep your biggest secret," Cameron answered.  
"Do you know this secret?"  
"No, it's not in my files."  
"Would you lie about it? I mean… tell me you don't know when you do know?"  
"Only when my mission requires it."  
"Great," John said disappointed.  
"Sorry," Cameron sent him a smile to cheer him up.  
"So what are you two talking about?" Sarah asked from the door opening.  
"Geez, and you complain about the lack of privacy in your room," John muttered. "  
About our friend on the roof?" Sarah ignored his complaint.  
"Who else?" John remarked. "I don't get it, mom. I get this vibe from him that he is my friend but then he does something like that."  
"What happened?" Cameron wanted to know.  
"He bullied me until I attacked him," John summarized.  
Cameron nodded.  
"So? Are you running a program now to analyze why he did that? Or what?" John looked at Cameron.  
"Data analysis shows incompatibility with possible mission objectives," Cameron answered. "His profile does not match with that of a drill instructor."  
"In other words he did it to piss me off. And if it was a mission objective, he can scratch that one of his list."  
"Data analysis shows that he did it to find how much John Connor you are."  
Sarah walked over to John's bed and sat down: "I don't understand."  
"His mission is most likely to protect John and you-"  
"Didn't future John sent you back for that?"  
"Yes, but this is not the same future."  
"Due to alterations in the timelines, yes, yes, I know," Sarah said with annoyance.  
"Huh?" John frowned confused.  
"One little difference in the past can make a world of difference in the future, at least that was what Tyler told me," Sarah explained.  
"That's correct," Cameron nodded. "Data analysis shows that Lieutenant General Devlin understands the complexity of the timelines."  
"Too bad he doesn't understand human interaction," Sarah countered.  
John rolled his eyes in annoyance. The last thing he needed was a match of words between his mother and Cameron. This Tyler character was mysterious and intriguing. Was his younger version the same?  
"I think he does, mom. He just doesn't want anyone getting close to him. There's a sadness in his voice when he talks about the war to come. Maybe he lost too many friends, too many troops?"  
"Human survival rate in the battle against the machines is low," Cameron explained.  
"Like we already didn't know," John grumbled.

Finally peace and quiet, John thought after Cameron and his mother had left. Cameron had not wanted to give out more information about the future, about him, about Tyler and she had gone to her room. His mother on the other hand hadn't wanted to leave it at that, as always, and had followed Cameron.  
John loved his mother. He loved her more than anything in the world. It was something that would never change. But he was John Connor. How was he supposed to lead an army against Skynet and its machines if she wouldn't let go of him once in a while? When they had discovered the warehouse with coltan, he had climbed into the back of the truck to place his cell phone as a tracking device and he had been locked in.  
And even though everything had worked out for the better, he knew that his mother still felt he had defied her intentionally. Maybe he had but he couldn't let that shipment of coltan stay in Skynet's hands. It was an army of those metal monsters less, a minimalistic rise in humanity's survival rate during the war.  
He knew it was a stupid thought. It didn't justify his actions but he did feel good about it. It had been something he had done, and not his mother. His first big accomplishment in the fight against Skynet, and his mother had not looked at him with some kind of pride. It had been more a look of disapproval and condescension. His biggest accomplishment as of yet and she had disapproved of his actions.  
She wasn't jealous that he had pulled it off. It was because he had gone in without a real plan, without thinking it through and she had been worried out of her mind for his well-being. It wasn't easy to have Sarah Connor as your mother but it wasn't easy being Sarah Connor either. She had an explosive temper and a violent streak to boot. She had been hunted and institutionalized for speaking the truth, a truth no one could believe or understand yet. The sickening feeling of betrayal welled up from deep within: she had signed him away. She had given up at one point in her life.  
Hadn't he betrayed her as well with his disbelief? Hadn't he told his friends that she was a nut job and a total loser? While all she had done was to try and stop this future, this madness from ever existing. Hadn't he thought that she had been in the right place at Pescadero Mental Institution until he had met the terminator he had sent back to protect him?  
Sarah Connor had been given this destiny she had never wanted: the mother of the future. She had been forced to live a life that wasn't hers, not for herself, not for him. Everything she had ever done and would ever do since her first encounter with the future had been with his best interest at heart.  
While he would sit around silently accusing her for all that was wrong in his life, all that she did wrong as a mother, she would go out to change the future, to change his destiny. She struggled with the burden of being a single parent, with the knowledge of a terrible future. Just as she kept fighting for a better tomorrow, she kept fighting her own destiny.  
There were certain aspects of her life she had fully accepted but for the most part she kept fighting it. When Tyler had told him about her, how she would be in the future, she hadn't been so very different from the woman she was now. Tough and calculating, extreme and short-tempered, incapable of normal human interaction, the very thing she had accused Tyler of.  
John was well-aware of the fact that she loved him more than anything in the world but he wasn't sure how she loved him. Did she love him as her son or as the man he was destined to become? It still was a sore spot for him to remember how she had held out her arms to him after their narrow escape from the T-1000 at Pescadero. As if she had wanted to hug him. Instead she had patted him down to check for injuries. Was that actually how she loved him?  
Silent tears trickled down John's face. Just as his mother hadn't wanted for this life, he hadn't either. Tyler's words echoed through his thoughts: _A cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch, but you have to be… We can't be lead by a soft-hearted wimp who's afraid to make his own decisions and turns to his mommy every step of the way._

Tyler sat down on the edge, never losing sight of the house. He wished he hadn't accepted John's request to go back. At least in the future the boundaries were clear. This was a world said goodbye to a few years from now.  
He thought back of the future past. Despite the continuous battle against Skynet, it was a situation where he had been in his rightful place. Lieutenant General Devlin, TechCom J-S-4-9-7-2-8. Here, it felt like he was losing track of who he was.  
He wasn't the kind of man to pull rank on anyone because he simply never had to. One of his field operations names was usually enough to earn the respect of the troops, but the Connors were different. John Connor still had a long way to go before he would be General Connor. Sarah Connor was very much like the Sarah Connor in the future. Ready for battle, anytime, anywhere. He had always admired that quality in her.  
_A grey thick mist spread through the night. The sickening sweet smell of fire was in the air._  
_"Jester!" The woman in black combat fatigues called over her shoulder. "Slacking again?"_  
_"Goddamnit, Ghost," Tyler growled, quickly climbing after her. "C said we shouldn't leave the assigned area."_  
_"Have I ever listened to him?" She asked defiantly, ducking into the shadows of the ruins when an H-K flew over._  
_"I wish you did," he sighed, bringing his night vision binoculars up to his eyes. "Just one," he noted._  
_"You want to have a shot at it?"_  
_He snorted with annoyance: "No, I don't and I don't think you should either."_  
_"Com'on. Don't be such a spoilsport, Jester."_  
_"We're here to do recon, not amuse ourselves with taking down H-K's. It'll give away our position. C wants us to-"_  
_"I know what C wants, Jester. And I don't care. One H-K down is one less to worry about."_  
_"We're here to investigate Skynet's latest project. Not raise hell," he protested._  
_"I thought you liked raising hell, Jester."_  
_"And it gets you a ticket to Century if you're not careful. Any idea what will happen if they capture you, Ghost, and they learn your real identity?"_  
_"Never thought that I would hear you say that."_  
_"It's not our mission," he said sternly. "I love kicking Skynet's ass as much as the next person but C asked us to behave tonight. He hasn't forgiven us for getting into trouble yesterday."_  
_She laughed, her eyes scanning the night sky for other H-K's: "That was no trouble… a mere inconvenience."_  
_He shook his head: "It's too quiet. I don't like it. We should head back."_  
_"Just a few more minutes," she said, leaving the shadows and making a run for another ruined building._  
_"Goddamnit!" He grumbled, his eyes drawn to a sudden activity just left of him. "Incoming!"_  
_Adrenaline seared through his veins when he saw a group of hccu's approach fast. Quickly he unbuckled the phased plasma charge from his belt, pulled the lit up, counted to 3 and threw it at the group._  
_"DOWN!" He shouted when he caught Ghost looking at him from the other side of the street._  
_The explosion rocked the direct environment and he felt himself being thrown back by the blast, crashing hard into the rubble and debris. He gasped for breath and felt a sharp sting at his side. It had been too close-by. What had he done? Dizzied by the impact of the explosion, his ears ringing._  
_Pain ravaged him when he sat up slowly. His right hand slid down to his left side and he felt warm fluid on the tips of his fingers, his blood. Slowly he looked down and grimaced when he saw a piece of metal sticking out of his side._  
_"Shit, Jester," Ghost rushed over and knelt next to him. "What the hell did you do?"_  
_He smiled faintly: "My job. Those metal fuckers?"_  
_"Blown to smithereens," she answered, checking him over. "Nice shrap."_  
_"Another scar to my ever expanding collection," he grimaced, gritting his teeth when he pulled it out. "Goddamn son of a bitch!" He growled as he tossed the piece of metal away._  
_"Com'on. I'll take you home," she chuckled before helping him to his feet. "Bax won't like it. She just had patched you up from our little adventure yesterday."_  
_"Bax shouldn't worry so much about me," he grumbled, stumbling a little when a sharp sting of pain set his nerves in his side on fire._  
_"She's got a crush on you," Ghost teased as she regained the balance for them both. "You've got a girlfriend."_  
_A loud growl escaped his lips but he was unsure if it was of pain or annoyance. Nausea rose from deep within and he fell to his knees to throw up._  
_"Didn't know you had in you to be sick," Ghost remarked, concern seeping into her voice. "Or does the idea of Bax as your girlfriend sicken you?"_  
_"I wish… I wish," he panted. "That you would stop playing match-maker."_  
_"Well, I think it would be good for you to have a girl," Ghost countered, helping him to his feet again. "Someone to take the edge off. Have some fun with."_  
_"Yes, mom," he said darkly as he fought off another wave of nausea._

"_Don't go there, Jester," Ghost growled angrily. "I don't need this shit from you."_  
_"Then don't make me. Bax is a great gal but not my type," he grumbled. "Why can't you just see that I'm fine the way I am?"_  
_"In other words the big and dangerous Jester, who escaped from Century numerous times, is afraid of girls," Ghost said very to the point._  
_He knew that she tried to keep the conversation going to take his mind of his injuries as they slowly made their way back to IntelliTech Base, but this wasn't exactly the kind of conversation suited for a battlefield or on a mission._  
_"I'm not afraid," he protested._  
Tyler shook his head violently to get rid of this memory. He didn't want to think about that night because it had changed everything and he still wasn't sure if that was such a good thing. In his future past Ghost hadn't known who Robin Baxter would become. Things had already changed so much and it worried him greatly.

"Aim for the head!" Someone called in the distance.  
Automatically Sarah adjusted her aim and discovered to her horror she was aiming for Tyler's head.  
Slowly she lowered her handgun a little: "Don't make me do this, Ty!"  
Tyler looked at her with a devilish glint in his eyes: "It is my destiny, Connor!"  
"Fuck destiny! It's in your own hands, Ty!" She yelled, raising the gun again when she noticed he made no attempt to lower his.  
"No fate but what we make for ourselves, right?" He taunted. "Now that's exactly what I am doing, Connor!"  
"This isn't the way, Ty!"  
"You don't know the fucking way either, Connor. The kid shouldn't have to suffer this!"  
All of a sudden Sarah saw a familiar form approaching from the corner of her eyes: "Kyle?" She squeaked emotionally, running towards him.  
Only now she discovered that she was no longer holding a gun and that Tyler had disappeared into thin air.  
"Kyle?" She called again.  
"It's time," Kyle said sternly, holding out his arms to her.  
"Time for what?" She asked while she threw herself in his waiting arms, kissing him frantically.  
"Time for change. Time to let go. Time to let the future begin," he answered cryptically, hugging her tightly.  
"I don't understand," she whispered in his ear before pressing a kiss on it. "There are so many things I don't understand."  
"I can't make you understand, Sarah. Only time will tell if you're able to."  
"Why did John sent this Devlin-character here?" She asked hesitantly, fearing it was an answer she would rather not hear but knowing it had everything to do with what Kyle had just said: time.  
"Because he loves you and wants to see you safe."  
"I know," she sighed. "That's why he keeps sending-"  
"Not our son, Sarah."  
"Tyler?" She stammered, shocked beyond words.  
Kyle nodded slowly: "It's okay, Sarah," he backed away a little. "Difficult times are approaching. The future is not set and you will need him to change it."  
"I don't need him, Kyle," she protested vehemently. "I need you."  
"The future, this future has changed beyond our grasp. It's unknown, unchartered territory. Tyler's one of the few who understands time shifts. Don't forsake this chance, not for you, not for our son," his voice trembled as he looked her in the eye.  
"So I'm just going to have to use him?" She asked upset, her despair etched deep into her voice. "But what if?"  
He freed himself carefully from her tight embrace: "He's not me. Not Charley. Not Derek… I never wanted this for you, Sarah. I never realized what I set in motion by coming here… I want you to be happy."  
"Like that's possible. And Devlin will leave just like you left. It's no use."  
"Yes," he said slowly. "He will. It's his destiny, but it will be a relief to know that until that moment arrives he'll be here to watch over you and our son."  
"Don't leave, Kyle," she pleaded with him when he started to walk away, slowly fading into the thick veil of electric blue mist. "Please stay!"  
Someone shook her roughly by the shoulder and her eyes snapped open. John was looking at her with great concern: "Mom, are you okay? Mom?" He asked when she sat up slowly, obviously completely unaware of her surroundings.  
"That's why that son of a bitch insists on staying on that damn roof," she mumbled while she rubbed sides of her head to relief the headache that was slowly forming there.  
She hated these dreams, as much as she hated the thought of Skynet being developed and the impending nuclear apocalypse. She hated that she got to see Kyle and that he would leave her again, just like he had 23 years ago.  
"I need to think, John," she said as she swung her legs out of bed and rose to her feet. "Alone," she added when she saw him getting ready to follow her.  
She grabbed her jacket from the chair and went out.


	14. Chapter 13: Choice Or Chance

**Chapter 13: Choice Or Chance**

"I could try to get him down from there," Cameron offered the next evening after dinner when the topic of their conversations had once again become the man on the roof.  
"The roof suits him fine," Sarah grumbled. "He wants to say out there? He can stay out there."  
"Still, it is tactically-"  
"If I hear you say that one more time, I swear I am going to hit you," Sarah interrupted her.  
John sent his mother a look of great concern. Ever since he had woken her up from her dreams in which she had called for his father, she had become more and more withdrawn during the day, only uttering a necessary word or sentence when it was required. He knew from experience that a brooding Sarah Connor never bode well. Familiar with these moods, it was better to let the topic rest because, if provoked, she would turn their lives upside down again in a heartbeat. She always wanted to be in control of the situation and if she wasn't there would be hell to pay for anyone to cross her path.  
He had spent most of his afternoon out on the rooftop with Tyler and he had discovered that if you approached Tyler the right way in a conversation he would open up and tell you things. That he was kind of laidback and easy to talk to, and not some bad-ass soldier from the future on a mission. A few hours into the conversation John had started to feel that they were old friends. Nevertheless as soon as he had tried to corner him Tyler had resorted to stonewalling him again, making it next to impossible to get a shred of information.  
It had amazed him how much Tyler knew. It was like the man remembered every little thing in his life: whom he had met, what he had read and learned, what he had seen and discovered. He had tried to steer the conversation a few times but Tyler had either shut up or ignored his attempts completely.  
"Cam's right, mom. It would be better if Tyler came down from that roof and stayed with us," John said hesitantly, insecure if this wouldn't trigger her impressive temper.  
Sarah Connor wasn't the kind of woman you wanted to have angry with you, that you would say 'no' to.  
"Don't you start too, John Connor," Sarah said gruffly. "That you've spent a couple of hours with the guy doesn't mean that you're best pals suddenly."  
"No," John muttered upset. "But I'd feel a lot safer if he stayed here with us."  
"We've got Cameron."  
"Still," John began.  
Sarah heaved a deep sigh and shook her head warily: "I don't know what he said to you, John, but we don't know him. We don't know how much or if we can trust him."  
"Well, I know he's a good person," John said fiercely. "I trust him." "How can you say that, John? You've spent what, 5, 6 hours in total with him. You can't know if he's a good person we can trust… For all we know he's one of Skynet's latest creations, so very human, so convincingly real that he has us fooled. Who's to say that it isn't just his arm that is made of metal?"  
"I know that you don't like him, mom, but-"  
"It has nothing to do with whether I like him or not," Sarah interrupted him.  
"He's human," Cameron remarked.  
"And thank you, Cameron," Sarah said with contempt seeping into her voice.  
"Mom, I think you're really overreacting. Ty's-"  
"Ty? Ty?! You're such good friends already that you get to call him Ty?" Sarah asked sarcastically.  
"He'd stop calling me kid if I did," John answered softly.  
He noticed the shiver that went through his mother. Whatever she had dreamt about, it had shaken her to the core. She was more rigid than was usual for her and it worried John because the last time she had been in this state of mind they had gone on the run again. But he was done running. They were finally making a stand against Skynet.  
"Data analysis shows that Lieutenant General Devlin wants to get to know this John Connor," Cameron chimed in.  
"Good for him," Sarah snapped at her.  
"He's not the enemy, mom, and neither is Cameron. I don't know what has you spooked like this but you have to trust me when I say that he's to be trusted."  
Sarah sighed and leaned back against the kitchen island, folding her arms across her chest as she looked sternly from Cameron to John: "Let's assume that he can be trusted, like you say, and that it's tactically better if he stayed here instead of on that roof… How do you see us getting him down from there?"  
John smirked: this was the sign he had been waiting for. The sign that his mother was willing to relent, to review other options.  
"I could go," Cameron offered again.  
"And have either one of you sent flying off of that roof? I don't think so. John?"  
"I've asked him a bunch of times already, mom, his answer's still no. Maybe you should give it a try?"  
"So I have to go up there and ask him?" She asked, raising one eyebrow sardonically. "What makes you think that he will listen to me?"  
"Because in a strange way you have a long history together… There's this resistance fighter he keeps mentioning, Ghost, his recon partner. And somehow I keep thinking that's you."  
"So you don't know for sure. It could be that Baxter-woman as well."  
"Could be, but he talks with such respect about her. It's gotta be you," John said.  
"Wonderful," Sarah grumbled.  
"Just give it a try, mom. He might listen to you."  
"With might being the operative word."  
"He isn't here to make amends with me, mom."  
"What do you mean?"  
"What I've been getting is that he feels extremely responsible for the fall of his base and your death," John explained. "Because of that you have the best shot at convincing him."  
Sarah nodded in agreement: "He looked like he could kill me for what I said to him yesterday. So it makes perfect sense that he would be willing to listen to me," she said sarcastically.  
John laughed: "I don't think it's his mission to kill you, mom," he teased.  
Sarah smiled sourly and looked out the kitchen window. John could tell she was fighting yet another inward struggle. Minutes went by in silence.  
"Just go and ask him, mom," John finally broke the silence that was getting heavier with each passing minute. "We shouldn't," Sarah whispered. "We can't ask this of him."  
"What is it that you are so goddamn afraid of? What keeps you from going to him and asking him for his help? That's why I sent him here, to help us!"  
"So he can become another statistic in the battle for the future? He will die if he helps us."  
John swallowed hard: "I know, mom. But either way he will die. It's his destiny. It's up to us if we put it to good use."  
He closed his eyes to avoid the piercing look his mother sent him. It were words he would rather never have said but convincing his mother was a battle of its own. Something was holding her back. Her dream of last night? Or was there something else?  
He had lain awake almost the entire night, thinking about everything and at the crack of dawn he had decided he was going to take charge if his mother would let him. Over the years he had learned to choose his battles with her, but he had to take over if he was ever supposed to become General John Connor, leader of the resistance.  
"John Connor," Sarah warned him.  
"What?" John asked angrily. "It's the cold and harsh reality. He will die, no matter if we ask him for his help. He's here on a mission… How am I supposed to become this great leader when all you do is shoot my ideas down? I want him added to the team."  
"John, it's not your call," Sarah's voice was a mere whisper. "It'll be his decision to make, not yours."  
"Is that going to be your excuse now not to ask him? He has to come to us out of his own free will?" John growled furiously, rising to his feet quickly and turning towards the door. "I don't give a damn about your motives, mom. He's one of my officers and I sent him here with a reason. If you won't talk him down from that roof, I will."

"John," Sarah called after her son. "John! Damnit! John, you don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what his motives are," she followed after him.  
John stopped, turned on his heels and looked at her sharply: "And I suppose you do?"  
"I wish I didn't but I do," she sighed. "Your dream, right? Didn't you stress the fact that they're just mere fabrications of the mind?"  
"You were a kid, John. You had a nightmare. This is different," she said sadly.  
"Because you called for Kyle, for my father. That makes it different? How? Are my nightmares of lesser importance than yours?"  
Sarah felt his eyes rest on her and she knew he was right but she had been fighting this battle alone for so long, it had become a second nature to question any other input then her own. She wanted what was best for her son and there was nothing she wouldn't do to achieve that goal.  
"No, they're not," a deep voice said from behind John's back.  
"Tyler?" John asked, squinting to see better in the darkness of the night as a dark shadow approached them.  
"It's not safe to be outside, John," Tyler said firmly. "A storm's brewing."  
"Huh?" John looked confused.  
Sarah felt her heart grow cold: "A storm's coming?" It were ominous words. She looked at Tyler who had decided on standing in the dim light coming from the house.  
"Go inside, kid," Tyler ordered, giving John a firm push against the shoulder. "You don't leave the house without me or Cameron. Got it?"  
"What's going on?" John asked, unable to hide his fear from his voice.  
"Don't know, kid, but whatever it is… it's about to go down," Tyler answered gruffly, grabbing John by the collar and pushing him towards the door. "Get inside now!"  
The final shove sent John up the porch and he scrambled to stay on his feet.  
Sarah felt totally on edge: "What the hell is going on?"  
"Call it a hunch," Tyler answered while his eyes scanned the environment for any abnormalities.  
"I don't give a flying fig what you call it. I want to know what the hell is going on," Sarah seethed, grabbing Tyler by the right arm in an attempt to get his attention. "You look like a goddamn robot when you do that."  
"I know… Nasty side-effect of having nanoattrioids on the brain," Tyler smirked. "Literally."  
"Nanowhat?"  
"Nanoattrioids, it's supposed to help the integration of the cyborg arm," he answered, raising his left arm. "It supposed to increase automotion, helps the part to become part of me. It's powered by brain impulses and kinetic energy. Fun, huh?"  
Sarah cast him a dark look. She hated it when people would change the subject, just as much as she hated surprises.  
"You scare the hell out of us and you don't even give us a decent explanation. What the hell is going on?"  
"We've entered the 24 hours zone. I don't want you or the kid going anywhere without me or Cameron."  
"Like that has ever happened," she snorted. "Cameron's like a dog, always following us around, showing up when least expected."  
Tyler chuckled: "I know. The element of surprise. It keeps you on the edge."  
"You programmed her like that?"  
He shook his head, smiling crookedly: "Actually John did. He thought that it was better to be an edgy Connor than a dead Connor."  
"Not very amusing, Tyler… What's a 24 hour zone?"  
"It's a time frame in which something will happen but we haven't been able to pinpoint the exact time," he explained, looking at the surroundings again.  
"Great… So something happens within the next 24 hours and you don't have a clue what it could be and when it happens. And John, future-John, made you Lieutenant General? It gives us all hope for the future," she stated sarcastically.  
Tyler's grin widened at her sarcasm. Apparently he found it amusing and it irked her to no end.  
"It's classified information. Let's go inside," he nodded towards the door.

"What can you tell me?" Sarah asked slowly as she followed Tyler through the house while he checked every room.  
"What's your best weapon?" He ignored her question completely.  
"A 12 gauge shotgun."  
"What make?"  
"Remington… Why?"  
"Not ideal but it'll do."  
"Well, excuse me for not having the weapons you're used to," she snapped at him.  
He stopped in his tracks and turned around quickly, causing her to crash into him. She quickly did a step back and looked him in the eye as he stood towering over her, unwilling to back away any further. Despite of their difference in height she wasn't afraid of him.  
"So this is how it's going to be, huh? I get to save your asses and you're going to snap at me for informing about your weaponry. Will you ever stop with the ryno-ing act? It's annoying as hell. Didn't like it in the future, don't like it now," he said dourly.  
"Ryno-ing? What the hell is that?"  
"R-y-n-o… means Rip You a New One. Ryno. It gets kinda old after a while, you know," he explained. "Just count your lucky stars that I didn't wring your neck yesterday for that remark."  
"In that case you would've set the record for the fastest way to fail your mission," she countered.  
"I'm not in the mood for banter, Connor," he said lowly, turning away to check the last room. "I have a pretty solid idea of what's coming but I don't know how it's coming or when."  
"Would a M4 suffice?"  
"Real or fake?"  
"It's a Colt," she replied.  
"Much better. With a few quick mods, it can do a lotta damage. Where is it?" He asked eagerly.  
"We need to drop by an old friend, Dave Grant. He still owes me."  
Tyler tapped his forehead with the index finger, middle finger and ring finger of his right hand: "David Grant, an ex-Seal. One of John's many aspiring would-be fathers. Didn't you break his nose when he cheated on you?"  
"That's exactly why he owes me," she chuckled amused. His remark immediately raised a question in her mind: "How much do you actually know about me?"  
"Enough," his answer was short and simple.  
"And what's that supposed to mean?" She asked a little annoyed.  
"I was your guard for 12 years. We would talk from time to time."  
"When I wasn't, what you called, ryno-ing you?"  
"Or John. Sometimes I wondered if that's why he stuck you with me, but we knew you did it because you cared about us and thought we were being reckless and irresponsible."  
"So you would say that you and I were friends?"  
"Yeah, I would even say that you and I were very good friends," he nodded, starting for the front door.  
"Lovers?" She had to ask, if only because of her dream.  
"W-What?" He seemed genuinely shocked by her question.  
"No. Why?"  
"Don't know," she answered, trying to keep a steady voice. "Maybe because you're a guy and I'm-"  
"Never," he interrupted her while shaking his head firmly. "You're the mother of my best friend, my sister-in-arms when you were my recon partner. Besides you were a lot older than me at that time."  
"So this isn't some personal vendetta against Skynet?" She asked, unsure if she should feel sad or relieved.  
"Don't know… Does wanting to take an axe to the goddamn machine and beat it into shrapnel sound like a personal vendetta?"  
"Yeah, it does," she answered with a faint smile.  
"You ready to go?" He sounded impatient. "Just give me the address and I'll drive."

Sarah was happy that she could withdraw into her thoughts because it took her mind of Tyler's driving style. He swerved in and out of traffic at high speed, barely missing the other traffic on the road, flooring the gas pedal every chance he got. It wouldn't surprise her if she would see the flashlights of a police car any moment soon. When it remained dark behind them she returned to her thoughts, leaning her head back against the headrest comfortably.  
The entire day she had been trying to analyse her dream, considering and reconsidering her options. If what Kyle had told her was true, that this was a quest for revenge for Tyler, her options had been very limited but now that Tyler had openly denied it, it opened a new spectrum of possibilities. That was if Tyler wasn't lying. He didn't strike her as a man brutally honest and open about his feelings. War changed everybody, she knew that from own experiences. It might not be the kind of war Tyler had seen and been in, but it had been a war all the same.  
In less than 24 hours she had gone from sweet and lovable Sarah Jeanette Connor to a primal and savage Sarah Connor. She acted and reacted with actions first, asked questions later. Unlike her son who always had the knack of feeling a situation, she would act on instinct. If she would no longer feel safe somewhere she would pack up everything and leave, going into hiding until she felt sure enough that it was safe to resurface again. Nevertheless safe was a relative word that she had scratched from her dictionary. No one was ever safe. She wanted them to live off of the grid as much as possible, so they would not have to look over their shoulders constantly, something she had kept doing anyway.  
She tried to remember the last time she had felt really safe. It had been on the night everything had changed: making fun of poor Matt over the phone when he had thought he had Ginger on the line. It felt like another life. It had been another life in which terminators, Skynet and Judgment Day had not existed.  
There were moments that she longed back for those days of carefree silliness. Sometimes she hated Kyle Reese for coming into her life and changing everything, and on rare occasions she even hated John for all this. If he hadn't sent Kyle back none of this would have happened. She could have lead a normal life, with a husband and children. She could have had a successful career. It was an illusion of a life that could never be.  
Now she had to work for minimal wage at local dinners with low job requirements and short job application forms. Usually knowing how to write your name correctly was enough to hire you on the spot. She hated it but John's destiny dictated it.  
She could have defied their destinies by living the life she had wanted for herself but there was no doubt in her mind that that way of life would have gotten them killed sooner or later, so she had decided to prepare her son the best she could. Skynet was unrelenting and merciless.  
It was one of the few things she had accepted as her destiny: unless they would manage to stop Skynet, to keep it from ever existing, they would never be able to lead a normal life. She was well-aware of the fact tat she could never live up to the expectations of a real mother, having a hard time understanding her son but trying the best she could. It didn't help that he was in his teens, leading only to more misunderstandings. Any psychiatrist would have had a field day with a patient like her son in a few years if the world had not gone to hell by then. Oh, she was sure that she had messed him up good.  
Nevertheless all these things didn't measure up to her time at Pescadero State Hospital. It had been the worst time in her life because for 2 long years she had been useless, unable to change a thing about the coming future. At first she had tried to escape on a daily basis but after a few attempts Dr. Silberman had decided to move her to the closed facility of the hospital.  
They had treated her like some wild animal, resorting to violence if she refused to cooperate. She had been hit with the nightstick or zapped with the tazer more than she cared to remember. In a sick and perverted way Dr. Silberman had conditioned her temper to trigger at the slightest hint of non-cooperative behaviour.  
She hadn't been the crazy one in Pescadero, the diagnosis of acute schizo-affective disorder held no meaning to her. Dr. Silberman and his thugs were because they refused to believe her, because they would provoke her into uncontrollable fits of rage when she would be up for review so Dr. Silberman had a reason to keep her at the closed facility instead of transferring her to the open facility so she could see her son again.  
It had been a bittersweet revenge when she had managed to stab him in the knee with his own pen. For minutes he had been provoking her by asking about her son and Kyle Reese, a man he had declared insane when he had still been working as a police psychologist at a local police station. He had anticipated her fit of rage, his orderlies onto her before she had a chance to do some real damage, but he hadn't expected a stab to the knee.  
Her stay at Pescadero State Hospital had defined her in more than one way: not only had it invoked true violence into her temper. She had also made the biggest mistake of her life there. The only thing she had thought of that she could never ever do, she had done. She had signed her son away. There was no comfort in the knowledge that she had been heavily sedated into meek behaviour when she had signed those papers. It was unforgivable what she had done and Tyler's remark that John would come to understand why offered her no comfort either because she would never be able to forgive herself.  
In her drug-induced stupor she had thought for a mere 3 seconds that she had done the right thing by signing John over to Todd and Janelle Voight. Three seconds of her life that hadn't been hers.  
For a second time that day she had jumped over the table, this time to attack the representative of Child Care Services, the medication no longer sorting effect on her, to undo the wrong she had just done. For a second time that day she had felt the incredible pain a drive stun tazer could inflict.  
In retrospective she could have known that it hadn't been a day like any other. The final straw had been that night when the police officers had come to inform her that her son had gone missing, to show her photos of a man she would never in her life forget because he was no man. It was a machine sent to kill her, and now her son. She had known that she had to escape and find her son so she could protect him, even if she had to die in order to keep him safe.  
However John had come for her. He hadn't given up on her yet and he had brought his protector with him to aid in her escape. The moment the machine had stepped out of the elevator, her heart had stopped beating and her blood had run cold. The only thought in her mind had been that she had been too late, that she had failed her mission to keep her son safe.  
It had been extremely difficult to see this machine apart from the machine that had been sent back to kill her in 1984. Until her breakdown after the assault on Miles Dyson it hadn't registered that there were more like 'him', coming from the same mould. Nevertheless during those two wild days she had learned that a machine could be capable of learning the value of human life and that it was simply a matter of flipping a switch to enable its learning mode.  
She had studied John's behaviour and interaction with the machine. The machine eager to learn, John eager to teach, like a son and his father, and yet, despite this friendly interaction, she hadn't felt released from her fears. But unlike John she couldn't see 'him' as anything other than what he had been designed and programmed for: a killing machine.  
That was one of the reasons she couldn't trust Cameron. Cameron had a real name, an identity, but she was still an infiltrator, a terminator, build for one purpose only: to kill her target. Luckily future-John and Tyler hadn't forgotten to put the switch into learning mode.  
With a wry smile she thought back of the numerous times she had received messages and phone calls from Campo de Cahuenga High School about the odd behaviour her daughter Cameron had been displaying around school and in class.  
Cameron, my daughter, she thought bitterly, barely able to suppress the snort of contempt that accompanied that idea.  
It wasn't that she didn't care for Cameron because in a strange way she did. She cared for the personality, identity it tried to adapt. Hadn't she smiled a little when Cameron had 'persuaded' those frat boys to give up their clothes? Hadn't she kept watch over her after John had removed the chip to plug it into a traffic light so A.R.T.T.I.E. would be declared a bust?  
She did care about the person Cameron was trying to be, just as she had done with uncle Bob, but she couldn't care for the machine, and still she understood Cameron better than she did people. Cameron was programmed, her mission objectives were clear. She didn't have a heart or a soul to cloud her judgment.  
Kyle, Derek, Tyler, their hearts were tainted by the future war. Their souls consumed by hate and rage. Staking their lives for a futile victory.  
"Hold on. Seen the perfect parking spot," Tyler said, completely derailing her train of thoughts.  
"Where?" She asked, looking for an empty parking spot.  
"Right there," he answered nodding towards a small parking spot across the street.  
"Do I want to know how you're going to park the car?"  
"Sideways," he grinned, pulling up the handbrake and turning the wheel into the right position.  
"What the hell?" She cried as the car swerved sideways.  
The car slid into a perfect parking position, coming to a full stop against the curb, shaking roughly on impact.  
"How's that for parking?" He laughed warmly, getting out of the car quickly. "What number did you say it was?"

John played absently with the empty soda can on his desk, pushing it back and forth again and again. What was the point of trying to act like a leader and then be treated like a child?  
"You're upset," Cameron stated, standing in the door opening.  
"No, I'm not. I'm fine," John countered, tipping the empty can over with his index finger, watching it roll of his desk and fall on the floor. "What do I have to be upset about? Everything's just fucking perfect and, oh yeah, the world ends in 4 years."  
"That's why we're here, to stop it," Cameron said as she entered the room. "To stop Skynet."  
He leaned back in his desk chair and shook his head: "That's why you and mom are here… Don't know why I'm here since no one wants to listen to me."  
"I'll listen. You talk, I listen," she offered. "Not that kind of listening, Cam. They want me to become this so-called great leader and all they do is treat me like I'm some goddamn 4-year-old, pushing me aside at the first hint of danger."  
"Who's they?"  
"Mom, Derek, Tyler."  
She displayed a smile and nodded: "Whose opinion bothers you the most?"  
"What do you mean? All of them, I guess," he sighed.  
"Tyler's… You look at him and you subconsciously wonder if you'll be like him in the future. Cold, calculating. You'll be even worse than him. Sarah's… You look at her and you subconsciously wonder if you will ever surpass her input in this war. You will but just not now, not yet. Derek's… You look at him and you subconsciously wonder if he is anything like his brother, like Kyle Reese. No, he isn't. All three influence you at different levels of emotion."  
"What the fuck do you know about emotions?" He snapped at her. "Do you understand why people get upset, why they cry or why they laugh? You don't. You're a tin man who has been programmed with Psychology 101."  
He glanced at her to measure her reaction to his harsh words. Was he expecting something else than her unmoved expression? An expression that said nothing of feeling or thought.  
"Does my opinion matter to you?" She asked slowly.  
"Should it matter?" He answered with a question of his own.  
"That's what I am asking you," she replied.  
"Yeah, I guess it does… I know that you're a machine and all, but some appreciation would be nice from time to time."  
"Why?"  
"Because I do things too. It's not just mom or you. I cracked Vick's chip, Sarkissian's computer, hacked the police computer system so we knew where Derek was and we could help him escape. I went to get Charley when mom wanted to go after a doctor with a tazer gun. Thanks to me Skynet has a shipload of coltan less."  
"So you want validation for minor or irresponsible accomplishments?"  
"That's one way to put it… It's just that it would be nice to know that I did something good once in a while."  
Cameron nodded as if she understood what he was referring to: "You feel left out. Sarah, Derek, Tyler and I actually get to do things that could change the future while you have to wait in the shadows for your turn. Is that it?"  
"What? Do you come with Advanced Psychology 101 too?" He asked angrily.  
"No, I'm only trying to understand why you feel this way," she answered monotonically.  
"Can you understand?" He didn't hide the sarcasm from his voice.  
"I think you are jealous," she stated. "You don't want to run anymore, but you're afraid to fight too. Derek, Tyler, they are here to help us and you want to be like them without the loss of human emotion."  
"Is that possible?"  
The fact that Cameron remained quiet was answer enough for him: "So I will become a cold-hearted bastard, just like Derek and Tyler. What if I say I don't want that?"  
"It will not help. Human emotion is a handicap when you have to send troops into battle, but you'll learn," she said reassuringly.  
That piece of information didn't make John feel better. In fact it made him sick to his stomach and he had to fight to keep dinner down.

"My, my, I'd never thought I'd see you again, Sarah," David Grant exclaimed, finding her and an unfamiliar man on his doorstep. "Come to haunt me?" He laughed loudly.  
"Cut the crap, Dave. I need an M4 and I need it now," Sarah growled, pushing him aside to enter the house.  
"Don't have it," David smiled as he stepped back a little when Tyler stepped over the threshold.  
"Bullshit, Dave. I know that you sell them. It's what got you that dishonorable discharge. You were a fixer."  
"What's with big guy? Afraid I might want revenge for you breaking my nose and dislocating my shoulder?" David asked, ignoring her remark completely.  
"Shouldn't have cheated on me," Sarah replied while turning to look at him. "I warned you that I don't like surprises."  
Tyler smirked but kept a close eye on David.  
"Is he one of your metal buddies from the future?" David asked.  
"You better be careful who you call a metal buddy, buddy," Tyler hissed while he shoved David hard against the wall and pressed his left forearm firmly against the man's throat.  
"My friend here doesn't like you comparing him to one of them. He hates them," Sarah said wryly.  
"Temper, temper. Got yourself another fiery one, Connor?" David chuckled amused. "You always liked them a little rough."  
Tyler slowly increased the pressure on David's throat: "M4?"  
"Can't… Can't breathe," David wheezed, struggling to push Tyler's arm from his throat.  
Tyler didn't relent and looked the man, who was now turning blue, in the eye: "M4?" He repeated.  
"Tyler," Sarah said firmly. "He's no use to us dead."  
"So far he hasn't been of use alive either," Tyler grumbled, decreasing enough pressure for David to breathe normal again.  
"Aw, still softhearted, Sarah?" David taunted. "Still haven't killed anyone?"  
"But I have. A long, long time ago. Want to try your luck?" Tyler hissed. "M4?"  
"I don't know what your fucking deal is, buddy, but I have taken on and defeated even bigger and stronger guys than you," David boasted.  
"So I've seen," Tyler grinned darkly. "It took me less than a second to overpower you."  
"You caught me by surprise," David objected.  
Tyler removed his arm from David's throat and stepped back, a look of disdain in his eyes: "Well, if that's the case… If you think that war's about fair play, take your best shot," he dared, lowering his arms to his sides: "Come on!" He ordered.  
David pulled back for a right hook but Tyler acted at dazzling speed and slammed David into the wall again.  
"You cheat!" David cried upset.  
"Never show your enemy what your next move will be. It gets you killed," Tyler whispered into his ear before slamming him into the wall again for good measure. "M4?"  
"In the shed in the backyard. Move the crates until you see a hatchway. Take whatever you need," David mumbled. "  
Thank you," Tyler said with a wry smile while he let go of David.  
"That was incredibly stupid," Sarah stated, following him close behind as he made his way to the shed in the backyard.  
"I have no time for negotiations, or the patience," Tyler shrugged his shoulders. "He has something I want so he better hand it over or-"  
"You would've killed him?"  
Another shrug of his shoulders: "You don't want to know."  
He forced the door to the shed open, stepped inside and looked around for the crates. Quickly he pushed them aside and found the hatch in the floor.  
"Of course, no key," he said warily when he discovered the padlock.  
"That's why you should've asked him nicely, instead of acting like a goddamn tin man," she remarked.  
He began to laugh heartily: "You think this'll stop me?"  
His left hand closed around the padlock and he concentrated on increasing the pressure on it gradually. After a while it began to deform and with one firm yank the padlock broke away.  
"Neat trick you like?" He asked amused, tossing the remains of the padlock aside and opening the hatch: "Nice," he nodded when he saw the hidden weapon stash.


	15. Chapter 14: Dawning Of A Future

**Chapter 14: Dawning Of A Future**

TJ folded his hands behind his head and tried to make sense of it all. The deeper he looked into it, the less he understood of it. Inspired by his quest to find out more about his mother, he entered new searches into his computer. The last being 'John Connor'.  
Now he was looking at a newspaper article about a bank heist at the Security Trust of Los Angeles published in the Los Angeles Sun in September 10th, 1999. 'Fugitives Die in Bank Heist' read the title and it was accompanied by a print of the security camera footage. The picture showed a woman in her thirties and two teens. The caption said 'Sarah Connor, son John and Philips during heist'.  
He right-clicked the picture and saved it, then he skimmed through the rest of the article. FBI-agent James Ellison, Charley Dixon. Were those names to remember? He looked at his second monitor, at the FBI-profile of Sarah Connor. His eye was caught by the mentioning of 'Pescadero State Hospital'. He knew it was a mental hospital. His mother had worked there for a few months, around the time this Sarah Connor had been locked up in there. Was it coincidence? Or planned?  
Quickly he entered a few commands and the FBI-file was replaced the homepage of Pescadero State Hospital. The firewall to keep hackers and crackers out was a joke and soon he found himself in the mainframe.  
'Input?' blinked on the first monitor.  
The small hacking program he had written a few hours ago seemed to work very effectively. With only a few simple commands he had a world of information at his fingertips.  
'Sarah Connor', he entered.  
A list of links and references appeared on the screen and he clicked on patient file.  
"Long live the internet revolution," he whispered to himself.  
It was a rather long file, so he quickly copied and pasted it into a txt-file and saved it to one of his external hard drives. Because he knew that the longer you stayed in a mainframe uninvited the bigger chances that you were discovered. In and out. He closed the program and returned to the homepage before closing it. He leaned back again, a feeling of calmness and satisfaction washing over him. Hacking was something he did for fun, for the sport of it.  
Still, wasn't he telling himself stories? This Sarah Connor couldn't be the tragic heroine his mother loved to tell him about? How could she live in the future when she had died in the past? More and more questions arose in his mind. How could his mother have known this? What if the image of the future his mother had painted in words was to be a reality? What if his mother had been from the future and that the young girl who had fitted the family description was her?  
Come on, TJ, he thought, you're letting your mind getting away from you.

"Agent Ellison, we have been able to mark the hacker," the rookie FBI-agent reported to agent James Ellison. "He was smart but not smart enough."  
"Got an address?" James Ellison asked impatiently.  
"7912, Trentington Avenue," the rookie read aloud from the piece of paper he was holding. "Want me to arrange back-up, sir?"  
James Ellison shook his head: "No, I don't think that will be necessary. It's either who I think it is or some unlucky punk hacking the wrong page."  
"How did you know that the system would be hacked and that that particular page would be 'visited'? It's been months since the last developments."  
"Call it experience, agent Hanssen. There's always been something off with this case: each time the dust settles a bit and then something happens that makes absolutely no sense at all."

"Who the hell is it?" Thomas Devlin asked angrily as he went to open the door.  
"TJ?" He called up the stairs. "This better not be one of your friends pulling a prank, or you'll be grounded, mister!"  
He yanked the front door open and looked at a well-groomed, tall man dressed in an expensive suit: "Can I help you?"  
"FBI-agent Kester, sir," the man said as he showed him his badge. "I'm sorry to be bothering you at this hour but I have a few questions that need to be answered."  
"FBI?" Thomas mumbled confused. "Whatever my son did, agent Kester, I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose."  
"Do you know a John Connor?"  
"Who's he?"  
"What is your son's name?"  
"Tyler Jess, but everyone calls him TJ. Why?"  
"Is your last name Devlin?"  
"I thought you already knew and that was why you were here. I know that my son has gotten himself into trouble in the past but whatever he did now, he meant no harm… Hey!!!" Thomas exclaimed, his eyes widening in horror, when he saw agent Kester pull out his gun and aim for him.  
"Thank you for your cooperation," Kester said, pulling the trigger.  
A shot rang out and Thomas fell to the floor, blood oozing from a chest wound. He panted heavily, tasting blood in his mouth. The man now aimed for his head and fired the gun again.

"Dad?!" TJ called after hearing the first shot. "Dad?!?!" He yelled, storming out his room when a second shot sounded through the house.  
An unfamiliar man with a gun in his hand came up the stairs. TJ knew he was coming for him and he ran back into his room, locking the door quickly, hoping it would keep the man out.  
He climbed out the window closest to him, onto the sloped roof. A cracking noise told him that the door to his room had given way. What the hell had he done? Why was that man after him? The only 'bad' thing he had done lately was hack the FBI-mainframe and that of the Pescadero State Hospital. And he hadn't cracked it but hacked it to find out more about his mother and the stories she had told him. Besides it was a game to him, to see if he could.  
His father. What had happened to his father? They might not see eye-to-eye on many things and sometimes he would just hate him for the things he said or did but he wished him no harm.

Derek Reese hid in the shadows of the trees. He had seen the man approach the Devlin-house. He had heard the shots fired. He had known that it was Cromartie.  
"Sorry," he whispered. "But it's for the best."  
He didn't hate the boy but he did hate the man. If there was an even bigger cold-hearted bastard than John Connor in the future it was Lieutenant General Tyler Devlin, the result of future-John's little pet project.  
Derek hated Tyler for more reasons than he could sum up in a minute, but the main reason was Robin Baxter, his girlfriend, sent back by John Connor himself to have this boy with Thomas Devlin. Love was rare in the future and John and Tyler had taken that away from him, just like John had taken away his little brother.  
He frowned when he saw a figure stumble and fall on the roof. The boy had managed to get out of the house and was now on his way down the rain pipe. It presented Derek with a horrible option: he could kill the boy who was running away from the house as fast as his legs could carry him.  
It would change the future in unforeseen ways without any guarantees that it would spare him from all the heartache and pain John Connor and Tyler Devlin had inflicted upon him. If he killed the younger Tyler or let him by killed by Cromartie who now came running through the front door literally, what would happen with the future? What would the impact of this change be? There was no way of telling.  
But Derek knew that he wouldn't be doing the right thing if he remained on the sidelines because despite his hate towards Tyler he felt some respect and admiration as well. Tyler held the record for most escapes from Century, letting himself get caught on occasion to help others with their escape. A crazy son of a bitch, just like John Connor. Never afraid, always the first to engage and the last to leave. Who would help him, Kyle and John escape if he let the boy get killed?  
Derek didn't know and that was why he couldn't kill him or let him get killed. He had to rescue him instead.  
Slowly and carefully Derek snuck to the car closest by and tried the door. Locked. He took out his handgun and smashed the window on the driver's side in with the back of it. He looked around to see if the noise of the breaking window had alarmed any of the neighbours but no one came out or turned on an extra light. His luck: the sound of shots fired earlier had scared the neighbors into hiding in their warm and comfortable homes.  
He unlocked the door and climbed behind the steering wheel, feeling if he could break away the housing that hid the ignition. It gave way and he quickly connected the necessary wires to start the engine. Pressing down on the pedal a little to keep the engine revving, he looked in the direction of where the boy and Cromartie had disappeared from sight.  
He turned the steering wheel a little and then floored the pedal. The car slipped away from the curb, the engine howling in the lowest gear.  
Derek felt the adrenaline pump through his veins. The chase was on! But would he reach the young Tyler in time before Cromartie would get the chance to kill him. A few yards ahead he saw Cromartie running while aiming his gun at the boy. The boy ran in a zigzag pattern, making himself a difficult target for the man chasing him.  
Smart, Derek thought impressed: "Not if I can help it," he said through gritted teeth when he saw Cromartie readjust his aim.  
The engine howled like a wolf at a full moon when Derek floored the pedal again. The car jumped forward. Only 2 or 3 feet left but Cromartie seemed undisturbed by the car closing in on him. He aimed and fired at the boy.  
Derek sighed with relief when he saw that Cromartie had missed.  
"No wonder, he's hard to catch," Derek smiled to himself. "Com'on, you worthless piece of junk," he seethed, yanking the shift stick into a higher gear.  
The car renewed his howling and sped up again, the front bumper ramming Cromartie in the back of the knees. The windshield shattered when Cromartie slammed into it and was tossed over the roof.  
Derek looked in the side mirror and in the rear-view mirror to see where Cromartie had landed. The machine was already scrambling to his feet again to resume his mission to kill TJ Devlin.  
He drove past the boy and slowed down, leaning over to open the passenger's door: "Get in!" He ordered the boy. "Now!"  
The boy looked at him and decided to take his chance, diving into the car quickly: "Who are you?" He panted out of breath.  
"Derek," Derek answered, flooring the pedal again the moment he heard the door shut.  
"I'm Tyler, but everybody calls me TJ," the boy said with a shaky voice.  
Derek managed to smile a little but kept his mouth shut and his eyes on the road.  
"Why did that man want to kill me?" TJ asked tearfully.  
"Not now," Derek said gruffly. "I've to get you to safety first… Are you hurt, TJ?"  
"Don't think so. Where are you taking me?"  
Derek didn't answer. He wanted to limit talking to the boy to a minimal, afraid he might actually start to like him, afraid to forget who this boy was destined to become.

John leaned casually against the door post: "What did you two do? Rob a gun store?"  
"They wouldn't carry these," Tyler laughed while he held up an anti-tank grenade for John to see.  
"What the?" John exclaimed upset when he realized what kind of grenade it was. "Mom?"  
"What?" Sarah asked concerned, entering the living room from the other side.  
"Didn't you tell him about that?" John asked, nodding towards the grenade Tyler was still holding up while he rummaged through the ammo and modifications.  
"Think he would've listened?" She asked in return.  
"Nope," Tyler answered before John could.  
"Well, you are pretty happy," John remarked.  
"Yep," Tyler grinned while he put down the grenade carefully.  
Sarah laughed amused: "You boys are all the same. Give you a few toys and you behave for the next few hours," she teased, earning a strange look from her son.

"I guess Ty isn't the only one who's in a good mood," John remarked after following his mother into her room. "You're gone for an hour and when you get back you've suddenly decided to get along."  
"Maybe we do. Maybe we don't," Sarah chuckled, taking her handgun from the dresser.  
"Mom, that's so not like you," John complained.  
"We went to Dave, picked up a few weapons, and then went straight home again. Maybe I'm just happy that I'm still alive after being in a car with him driving," she explained, in the meantime checking the ammo clip and the chamber of the gun.  
"That bad, huh?"  
"Worse. He gives a whole new meaning to parallel parking."  
"What?"  
"High speed sideways with oncoming traffic as a bonus."  
"Oh."  
All of a sudden she became ultra-alert when she heard a car approach at high speed. Was it Dave coming to get his weapons back? Or the police? She heard the car slow down and drive over a sandy road; their driveway.  
After checking her handgun one last time, she quickly moved to the living room. She glanced at Tyler who was on high alert as well. They exchanged hand signals, at which Tyler nodded and picked up the MP7 he had taken along as well. Stealthily he moved towards the kitchen door. A soft click told Sarah that he had taken the safety off.  
He looked out the window, lowered his weapon after putting the safety back on and opened the door.  
"Have you gone crazy?" Sarah exclaimed before she saw who entered the house. "Derek? And a boy? Who is he?"  
Tyler looked away and returned to the living room to work on modifying the M4.  
"May I present to you: Tyler Jesse Devlin," Derek said triumphantly.  
"Y-You… You mean," John stammered, pointing over his shoulder at Tyler.  
"The one and only," Derek grinned. "I think the kid needs some rest. He had a pretty rough night tonight."  
"What happened?" Sarah asked slowly.  
"A run-in with Cromartie," Derek answered. "Remember him? We should've taken care of that tin can months ago, but you wanted to play happy family instead."  
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked with concern.  
"He said he wasn't hurt or something," Derek answered when TJ remained silent.  
"Check his right upper arm, just above the elbow," Tyler growled, his back still turned to them. "He won't tell you… It's a through-n-through."

"You knew, didn't you? And you did nothing to stop it!" Sarah blazed after she had tended to TJ's gunshot wound and had left John in charge of making the boy feel safe.  
Tyler remained silent and didn't move.  
"You knew, and you left him to fend for himself!"  
"It wasn't in my hands," he replied slowly.  
"Bullshit, Devlin!" She seethed, stomping over to him and punching him hard on the right shoulder. "No fate but what we make for ourselves."  
"Now that's bullshit," he growled, rubbing his shoulder. "My fate was decided before I was born."  
"You could've done something, anything; instead you think that getting better weapons is more important than a life."  
"He would've escaped, found shelter somewhere and you would've met him some time next week," his voice was void of emotion.  
"You heartless son of a bitch!"  
He turned to face her. The look on his face startled her because it wasn't the look she had expected. It wasn't grim or blank, but sad and full compassion.  
"Do you think I forgot this date, this night?" He asked in a soft voice. "Do you honestly think I forgot the night my world changed forever? But it wasn't my mission."  
"If Derek hadn't rescued him-" she began.  
"I would've escaped anyway," he interrupted her. "Wounded, yes, but I would've gotten away. If you don't believe me, ask Derek if I ran in a zigzag pattern. If he says yes, I would've escaped. But this, this should never have happened."  
"What shouldn't have happened?" She asked confused.  
"He should never have met me. It changed the future."  
"So far he doesn't know who you are," she offered, her voice filled with hope suddenly. "We'll think of a new name for you and tell John, Cameron and Derek to call you that."  
"Good thinking, but it won't help," he shook his head. "We're too much alike. I wouldn't buy it and neither would he. It's better if we're just honest with him."  
There was a soft knock on the doorpost and Tyler and Sarah turned to see who wanted their attention: "Lights out when his head hit the pillow," John smiled. "So he's you, er, you're him?"  
Tyler ran a hand through his hair and heaved a deep sigh of exasperation: "Yeah."  
"Cool," John nodded with a crooked smile.  
"I don't see what's so cool about it," Tyler grumbled, turning his attention back to the table, to the weapons he was modifying.  
"Remember how embarrassed you feel when I mention cute little things you did as a toddler. It's the same for Tyler here but he gets to relive them in living colors."  
John burst into a fit of laughter at that teasing remark. If his mother wasn't letting you have it for something you did or didn't do, she could be incredibly witty.

"You're me, aren't you?" Tyler heard someone behind him ask in a timid voice.  
He looked up from the Beretta he had just disassembled and was now cleaning, glanced at the wall clock and turned to look at the person who had asked him that question.  
"You're me. And you're the very courageous young man who lived in the future mom would tell me stories about when I was little," TJ remarked.  
"It's past 4 a.m., kid. Go back to bed," Tyler said gruffly. "Don't ask me questions you already know the answer to or that you don't want answered."  
"The boy's John Connor, right? The future leader of the resistance? And the woman's Sarah Connor?"  
"What are you? Five instead of sixteen?"  
"I'm just trying to understand," TJ said weakly.  
"There's nothing to understand," Tyler growled, rising to his feet to get something to drink from the kitchen.  
"That scar? Across your left cheek? You got it at the fall of ITBase. A piece of shrapnel."  
"I caught a lot of shrap, kid. Now go to bed," Tyler grumbled annoyed when TJ followed him into the kitchen.  
"During the siege you lost what was dearest to you," TJ continued.  
"I lost a lot of things that were dear to me, kid. Keep this up and I can assure you that you won't get to see ITBase perish in the flames of hell."  
"But mom said that was when the Devil emerged."  
"Mom said a lot of things. Not everything necessarily true."  
"So you didn't love-"  
"Say that name, and you'll come to wish that Cromartie had killed you tonight," Tyler growled.  
"But did you?" TJ didn't relent.  
"Does it matter if I did or didn't? The future is my past, just as it will be yours. Let it rest."

"Got nothing better to do?" Tyler asked darkly after 10 minutes of silence in which TJ studied him and what he was doing with great curiosity. "Go to bed or go watch TV. Wake up Derek. Or go find Cameron and play 20 questions with her for all I care, but leave me the hell alone, kid."  
"You're me. I'm you," TJ stated, the fact that he was in awe about it clearly present in his voice.  
"We already established that, kid. Now go bother someone else," Tyler grumbled, slamming the Beretta he had just reassembled on the table.  
"I… You are a real hero," TJ beamed.  
Tyler snorted with contempt: "I'm no hero… I'm a monster, forged in the heat of battle, formed and defined by war, death and destruction."  
"Don't you remember the fantastic tales mom used to tell before bedtime?"  
"I do, but they barely hold the truth. You won't be carried around on shoulders after your umpteenth victory over those tin cans. People will hate you because it's you who will send their friends, relatives, loved ones into battle. You will make the decisions, along with John Connor and his staff, no one else dares to make."  
"Oh," TJ mumbled sullenly.  
"Listen, kid. The sooner you understand that the future isn't about glory and valor the better. It's everything about the survival of mankind. Hardly any friends and even the people, you so desperately will want to save, will want to see you dead. Enemy fire, friendly fire, the line isn't always clear. Keep your head down, your eyes up. Don't see yourself as important and always, always know your exits."  
Tyler smiled sadly as he thought about the last things he had said: they were the Connor – rules. He must have heard them even more often than John when he had come to live with the Connors. Four simple rules that had impacted his life tremendously and he still tried to live by them.  
"Oh, okay," TJ said, looking close to dissolving into tears.  
"I don't know what you expected of me when you decided to come and talk to me, kid, but you and I are the same and yet we couldn't be more different," Tyler said in the hopes it would make the younger him feel a little better.  
Tyler's clumsy attempt to cheer TJ up a little sorted the complete opposite effect and the boy broke down in tears.  
"Great," Tyler muttered annoyed. "What did I say now?"  
"Your tactics to cheer him up seem inefficient," Cameron stated upon entering the living room on her surveillance route.  
"No kidding. Can't remember I was such an emo-kid," Tyler grumbled.  
At that remark TJ began to sob even louder.  
"You are not helping," Cameron said.  
"Really? And here I thought I was doing such a great job at making a 16-year-old boy cry his eyes out," Tyler countered angrily. "Although he takes more after a 4-year-old with his stupid questions."  
Cameron knelt next to TJ and looked him in the eye: "It will be okay. I will go get Sarah," she said in a soothing voice before getting up.  
Tyler threw his hands up in the air in despair: "Oh, great! Don't forget to tell her the kid came looking for me!" He called after Cameron.

Not a minute later Sarah came storming into the room, furious as hell, followed close behind by Cameron.  
"What the hell did you do?!?" She snapped at Tyler. "You okay, TJ?" She asked, her voice soft and gentle. "You!" She turned her attention to Tyler again.  
"What?" Tyler asked innocently, slowly rising to his feet, knowing he had a disadvantage if he remained seated.  
She could kick the chair away from under him or push him over so he'd find himself on his back. He had found himself in that situation a few times in his life and Sarah Connor didn't play nice even if you were down.  
As a particular memory played through his mind, he started to laugh. Something he had better not done because now he was the one being shoved into a wall, by no one less than Sarah, and as always he was impressed by the amount of physical strength she possessed. People always misjudged and underestimated her because her height and build. They never saw it coming.  
"Make the boy cry again and I will give you a reason to cry," she hissed through gritted teeth, her eyes spitting fire.  
Tyler took a deep breath and shrugged: "Like he needs much to start crying."  
"Don't tempt me, Devlin," she growled.  
She emphasized her point by slamming him into the wall again. He saw a few spots before his eyes when his head collided with the solid background, and he shook his head to get rid of them quickly.  
"Trying to give me a headache, Connor?" He taunted, knowing it would only make her angrier with him. "Or do you think you can actually push me through the wall?"  
He doubled up when he felt her fist come down hard in his abdomen and gasped for air. An exploding pain in his head and his vision blurred for a second. He had to appreciate that her knee to the head had been a smooth and well-delivered move, but he wasn't down and out for the count yet. Caught by surprise because he had thought she would need longer to reach berserker mode.  
Feeling her hand glide through his hair and taking firm hold of it, he knew she was going in for the kill. Another knee to the head and it would be lights out for him. He waited until she had brought her knee halfway up, and then pulled her other leg out from under her, sending her crashing into the table and chairs.  
"What's going on?" John exclaimed, rushing into the room.  
"Your mom and Tyler decided to redecorate the room a bit," Derek explained.  
"And you do nothing to break it up?" John asked upset.  
"Why? She already kicked my ass once. Besides it's kind of amusing," Derek chuckled.  
"What's next? You gonna take bets on who will win?" John grumbled.  
"My money's on Sarah," Derek laughed heartily.  
"Mine's on Lieutenant General Devlin," Cameron chimed in, showing a smile.  
"You too, Cameron?" John asked in disbelief.  
Tyler was quick on his feet but so was she. Launching a brutal hook at his jaw, he blocked with his left arm, his right arm coming around her middle quickly.  
"You can't beat me, Connor," he whispered into her ear, pulling her firmly against him.  
She struggled wildly, resorting to 2-handed slams on his forearm: "You'll use up all your energy in no time," he smirked.  
"You'd be surprised," she seethed, kicking backwards suddenly.  
"Connor, just give it up," he laughed when she missed him entirely.  
Her feet pressed firmly on the floor; she pushed him right into the wall again, diving out of his hold on her. Launching another fierce punch at his face, this time blocked by a sweep of his right arm.  
"Caught a second wind?" He asked amused, blocking her punches left and right easily. "Tired yet?" When the fire ebbed from her attempts to connect.  
"No," she breathed hard.  
He smirked: "Let's call it a draw. You're already out and I'm not even warmed up yet. It wouldn't be fair."  
His right cheek began to burn. Her secret weapon: a slap across the face with the back of her hand. Extremely effective. How could he have forgotten about that?  
"Don't be arrogant," she said, rubbing her hand with a pained look on her face.  
"Blocked with my left arm?" He asked concerned.  
"Think so," she answered.  
"Force of habit... Sorry," he mumbled inaudible.  
"What?" She grinned mischievously. "Is that real apology I just heard?"  
"Don't push it," he grumbled annoyed, turning to clean up the mess they had made during their struggle.  
"Why didn't you hit her?" TJ asked suddenly. "You held back."  
A growl of frustration rose from deep within Tyler's chest. He knew that all in the room were now looking at him, expecting an answer or an explanation.  
"You want to know why, kid?" He countered with a question of his own. "Let me show you," he added going over to the wall.  
He closed his eyes and focused his concentration. With one swift move his left arm shot through the wall: "That's why."  
He looked at TJ and saw the awe and shock written across his face.  
"Now that's overkill," Derek snorted.  
"It is his way of telling TJ to shut up," Cameron concluded.  
"I take it that you're going to clean up that mess and fix the wall as well," Sarah shook her head, a faint crooked smile appearing on her face.


	16. Chapter 15: The Deal

**Chapter 15: The Deal**

He stood on a pile of rubble and debris, overlooking the battlefields of that night. Fire, smoke, explosions.  
Something was different tonight; he was more restless and on edge than usual. It felt like a storm was approaching fast. Since June this year Skynet was losing ground, the Resistance was finally winning.  
Skynet had responded to its defeats by increasing mass production of hccu's [1] and gau's [2]. Intensifying its attacks on the strongholds of the Resistance.  
Seven years ago he had come across an old building, more ruins than anything else, and he had discovered an isolated tunnel complex underneath it. So buried deep near the center of Los Angeles, hidden by ruins and rubble, lay IntelliTech Base. His home, a sanctuary from the hellish battles that took place on the surface.  
He scanned the sky with his binoculars when he spotted suspicious activity at the horizon.  
"Tango-Delta-One to Base, incoming north-northwest 4 H-K's. Signal Tango Alpha to legion Zulu-November-Four-Seven," he barked into the microphone of his communication gear.  
The line crackled but no answer came.  
"Come in, Base! Confirm signal Tango Alpha to Zulu-November-Four!"  
Again there was no answer.  
"MARKS? Come in!" He yelled. "You goddamn son of a bitch! I'll demote you to Private if you don't come in!"  
Still no answer.  
In all the years of war against the machines, he had quickly learned to let go of all fear, no matter how big or small, but now he was afraid. Terrified to be precise. He jumped down from his perch and started running, not caring if he was attracting attention from the hccu's [1] . He wouldn't even have cared if someone had painted a huge bull's eye on his back. There was only one thought left in his mind. He stumbled a little when he stepped on a skull that rolled away from under his feet, regaining his balance immediately. Faster and faster. His heart was racing, his lungs were burning.  
He blocked every thought from his mind, not wanting to think or feel. He stumbled again, this time falling to his knees. Steadying himself with his hands, he felt something pierce his left hand.

TJ looked at the man he was supposed to become one day. The man, of whom his mother had said, that he was a hero. Not the monster the man claimed to be. Tyler lay tormented in dreams, desperately fighting off the demons, thrashing around violently. Someone with an evil heart could never be haunted in nightmares like that. TJ was in doubt: should he wake him up to save him from his nightmares or leave him to deal with the enemies in his bad dreams?  
He was already leaning over Tyler to wake him up when a voice behind him said: "Wouldn't do that if I were you."  
Turning 180 degrees quickly, TJ saw John coming over to him.  
"Unless you would like a free flying lesson," John added with a wry smile.  
"Huh?"  
John nodded at Tyler: "Sent me flying across the room when I wanted to wake him up. Not a good idea," he said, showing TJ the fading bruises.  
"That must've hurt," TJ muttered.  
"My ego was hurt more," John laughed.  
TJ remained silent. He didn't know what to think of these people, and it made him shy and insecure. Somehow for the first time since all the events of last night he thought of his father and of the man who had killed him. Tears welled in his eyes and he wiped them away before John would see them.  
Trying to divert his thoughts, he looked at Tyler again. It seemed so unbelievable that one day he would become the man laying sprawled on the couch. They almost matched in height but TJ had a long way to go before he would be that broad and muscular. Would he benefit from working out? Would it be an advantage if he started building up strength?  
Cameron sauntered into the room, her walk regal and confident. He turned his gaze away when she caught him looking at her. She sent him some kind of smile he couldn't decipher yet.  
"My sister," John grinned. "Never got over that tornado. She's just weird."  
"She's not human. She's one of them," TJ remarked.  
"What?" John asked, sounding as if he didn't have a clue what TJ was talking about.  
"She's an infiltrator, a killing machine from the future," TJ explained.  
"You know?" John asked slowly.  
"My mom told me about them. Of how they infiltrated bases and killed or captured the humans that were hiding there," TJ nodded.  
"But how did you clock her?"  
"Don't know," TJ answered honestly. "Something about her. She's almost humanlike, but not quite. She must be one of Skynet's most advanced models."  
TJ could see the shock on John when he mentioned Skynet. All of a sudden his mother's fantastic stories weren't so fantastic anymore. In a few years those stories would become the cold and hard reality. What had his mother done?

In a way John felt privileged that Tyler wanted to spend time with him. He cast a look at the driver and at the road ahead. Now he could understand why his mother had been euphoric last night after having been in a car with Tyler driving. If they were to reach their destination, he would be thrilled too because Tyler was a menace on the road.  
John liked Tyler and he could see why he and TJ would become best friends. Suddenly Cameron's remark _It's his way of telling TJ to shut up_ shot through his mind. Why had Cameron said it like that? It implied that Tyler hadn't wanted to answer the question asked. That he hadn't wanted to lie.  
He had noticed that Tyler's behavior around his mother was off compared to how he reacted to Cameron or him. Tyler seemed to go out of his way to torment her, to ignite her temper. It was almost as if… As if Tyler didn't want her to like him, as if she shouldn't be allowed to care for him.  
His mother was probably the most difficult person he would ever know. Burdened with a knowledge of things to come, assigned a destiny to keep him safe and raise him the best she could. Every little thing she did was to ensure his survival and he knew that if needed she would lay down her life for him, just like Kyle Reese had done in the past, just like Tyler Devlin would do in the near future. His best soldiers, all willing to die for him without a second thought. It was a fate he didn't want and yet had been given. His mother, fierce and yet compassionate, was his best soldier. It's what Cameron had told him a while back. The best soldier he knew and would ever know: Sarah Connor.  
Should he ask Tyler why he wanted the distance? Was it because Tyler's time with them would be limited to hours or maybe days? Was it because Tyler had decided that he was to blame for the fall of his base? Had he decided that his time-jump was a punishment for failing his mission to keep Sarah Connor safe? Or was it simply that he wanted no one to care for him anymore?  
He looked at Tyler again. At the scars telling their own stories of battles and loss, ideals and disillusion, of courage and pain. His mother had not been exaggerating when she had said that Tyler had an atrocious driving style, weaving in and out of traffic with a frightening speed.  
For more than 20 years this man would be his friend. For 12 years he would leave him in charge of protecting his mother. Did Tyler blame himself for Sarah Connor's death? Did he feel that he had let everybody down?  
Tyler did his damndest best to not be liked or cared for and yet John had felt immediately at ease around him. That he could trust him with everything, even with his life or that of his mother.  
"So you and my mom," John started hesitantly.  
"Loved to raise hell," Tyler finished the sentence, swerving the car into oncoming traffic to pass by an oil truck.  
"That's not what I meant to say," John grumbled annoyed.  
"I know," Tyler said irritated while he looked into the rear-view mirror when the driver of the truck honked.  
"You said that you and here were friends… in the future, I mean."  
"Let it rest, John. What is in the future is in the future."  
"It's because you love her, isn't it?"  
"What?" Tyler asked, shaking his head warily. "Of course I loved her… like a son loves his mother."  
John shook his head in disagreement: "No, you want her to dislike you too much. She didn't know and you don't want her to know."  
John had to brace himself when Tyler steered the car sharply to the right, onto an empty parking lot, slamming on the brakes.  
"Listen, kid. And understand," Tyler growled, killing the engine. "I want you to let it rest," he turned to face John, to look him straight in the eye.  
"But why won't you tell her?" John asked innocently.  
He felt like he was the only person to ever ask Tyler that question without having to fear serious consequences to his health: "Why won't you tell her?"  
"Because I'm not going to pull a Kyle Reese on her," Tyler rumbled darkly.  
"Excuse me?" John remarked furiously, feeling his temper rise. "What do you mean with pull a Kyle Reese?"  
"I know what he meant to her. Why I saved the kid's ass a couple of times. Just the mere mentioning of his name was enough to send her into a state of disconnection from the world around her… She never stopped loving him."  
"And that's why you never said anything," John concluded, still a little irritated but understanding what Tyler had meant.  
"What good would it do, kid? If I were to tell her? It will only complicate matters."  
"But is that the real reason?" John asked slowly. "Are you sparing her or yourself?"  
"I don't care about me, kid. I died a long time ago… when my base fell," Tyler answered, swallowing hard.  
"So you're just gonna keep your mouth shut?"  
"It will be in everybody's best interest, kid," Tyler replied in a whisper.  
"In everybody's interest but yours," John said sharply.  
"John," Tyler heaved a deep, annoyed sigh.  
"That's why I asked you to take care of mom in the future, because I already knew," John said matter-of-factly, rubbing his forehead: topics like this always gave him a headache.  
"Time's in a loop, John," Tyler explained. "In 20 years you will be sending some of your best fighters to protect your mother and you."  
"And TJ will be just like you. Stubborn, unwilling to acknowledge-"  
"There is nothing to acknowledge, John," Tyler interrupted him. "What I feel or not feel is my personal business. Whether I decide to act on it will be my decision to make."  
"Yeah, yeah," John grumbled.  
An uncomfortable silence followed, which John ended after a few minutes by asking: "Wouldn't it have made more sense that I had sent you back to 1984 instead of Kyle Reese? With you and mom and all?"  
Tyler shook his head, cracking a faint smile: "You'll be General John Connor. You consider and reconsider which soldiers you will send to which time they're suited best for… Besides why on earth would you want me as your father? I'm the Devil, remember?"  
"Don't know," John answered somewhat embarrassed. "Despite the fact that you're always so full of conflict, you're kinda cool," he nodded, pleased with his answer.  
Tyler chuckled: "I'll take that as a compliment, I guess, but I don't think your mom and I would've been a good match in 1984. Not too fond of sweet, naïve college students."  
"You like her more when she's kicking your ass," John laughed loudly.  
"So far I'm still undefeated," Tyler laughed with him.  
"Let's make a deal," John suggested when all of a sudden he thought of a way to get Tyler to come clean.  
"What kind of deal?" Tyler asked cautiously.  
"The first time she beats you, and I mean win, not hit you since she obviously likes doing that… You tell her."  
"Tell her what?"  
"How you really feel about her," John sighed, rolling his eyes at Tyler's stubbornness.  
"John. You know I can't do that," Tyler said glumly.  
"Why not?" John exclaimed. "If I knew, or know, this isn't just about your mission, Ty. This is about being given a second chance as well."  
"What second chance? To maybe spend a few wonderful hours, maybe days, together and then I die?" Tyler asked sarcastically. "You don't know how your mother feels. Did it ever even cross your mind that it might not be mutual?"  
"If I know mom," John smirked.  
"You don't, John. Trust me… There's so much you don't know about her. That she kept from you. That she never wants you to know."  
"Like what?" John asked confused.  
"It's not for me to tell, John. She told me in confidence and I'm not gonna break that trust," Tyler answered. "I will see the end of this war, John, and if it were to be mutual she'll be left to pick up the pieces again."  
"What? What do you mean? The end of this war?"  
"There's a quote by Plato… Only the dead have seen the end of the war. The war is all around me, John. It's inside of me and it will never leave me until the moment I die."  
"You're real fun hang out with, you know that?" John mumbled upset, quickly wiping the tears from his cheeks.  
"No, I'm just realistic, John. I know my destiny and I have accepted it."  
"How can you say that?" John exclaimed troubled. "How can you sit there and say that without even a hint of emotion?"  
"John," Tyler said calmly.  
"NO! I order you-"  
Tyler smiled wryly: "I was never good at following orders, John."  
John looked away, out of the passenger's side window, tears sliding freely down his cheeks: "But we saved Derek," he muttered sadly.  
"Some people can't be saved, John, and I am sorry if you will have to find that out the hard way."  
"Take the deal then, please?" John begged, changing the topic entirely.  
Tyler gulped: "I can't, John."  
"You're just a big chicken!" John yelled angrily. "You're afraid to lose!"  
The look in Tyler's eyes hardened: "I already lost, kid."  
Unable to take this any longer, John threw the door open, jumped out of the car and started to run away from the car, from Tyler.  
"Goddamnit!" Tyler seethed, punching the steering wheel with his right fist.  
John heard the car door being opened, the sound of foot steps fast approaching and suddenly he found himself falling. The wind got knocked from his chest when he landed hard on the floor: "You could never outrun me, John Connor," he heard Tyler say mockingly.  
"I hate you," John wheezed when Tyler turned him over. "You're a goddamn bastard."  
"I know," Tyler agreed, the tone of his voice was friendly. "But I'll take your deal. Just to prove a point."  
"You will?" John asked completely surprised.  
Tyler nodded while he held out a hand to help John back on his feet: "I like a good challenge. No more slacking for me," he grinned mischievously.

[1] Heavy combat chassis unit

[2] Ground assault unit


	17. Chapter 16: Torn Apart

**Chapter 16: Torn Apart**

TJ looked from Cameron to Sarah and back. He felt most uncomfortable by their continuous attention, as if he were about to do something irrationally stupid any moment now. Wherever he went in the Connor house, one of the two followed him to make sure that he was okay. It wasn't Cameron who bothered him the most. He knew that she was a just machine programmed to follow orders.  
But the fact that Sarah wouldn't grant him a moment to himself grated on his nerves. As if she had any idea on how he felt. Her piercing green eyes filled with pity and concern. It irritated him to no end.  
He just wanted to be alone with his thoughts and his emotions. He needed to come to terms with all that had happened the past 24 hours. He had lost his dad, killed by another machine from the future, and he had been its next target.  
"Are you okay?" Sarah asked for the umpteenth time that early afternoon.  
He nodded slowly, knowing that he was far from okay. The fantastic stories his mother had told him before bedtime were unfolding into a terrible reality. Tyler, his future self, was the only one he wanted to talk to, but Tyler was out with John and he felt left out.  
"How's the arm?"  
"Fine," he replied sullenly.  
"You know," she said while she sat down in the recliner. "The first time," she leaned forward and looked him in the eye. "I met one of those metal bastards… I didn't want to believe it. It seemed so unreal."  
"I know," he mumbled, breaking eye contact. "Mom told me."  
"She told you?" She asked curiously.  
"Mom used to tell me bedtime stories when I was little, before she," he answered. "Before she died."  
"I'm sorry, TJ," she smiled sadly, trying to re-establish eye contact.  
"Car accident, 8 years ago," he explained. "Received a call in the middle of the night, went out, never came home again. Four days later police came by the house, told us she had been in a severe car accident near Lincoln in Nebraska and that she was dead."  
"I'm sorry," she repeated. "So she told you bedtime stories?"  
He had to smile faintly, appreciating the fact that she changed the topic, even if it wasn't for the better. The more he thought about it the more he realized they had not been meant as fantastic stories but as a therapy for her and as a warning of things to come for him.  
"Yes, I loved them," he shrugged his shoulders. "She never had any trouble getting me into bed. Getting me to sleep was another thing," he added with a faint smile. "She hadn't even finished telling one story and I was already begging for another one… I didn't know-"  
"That they were real," she finished his sentence when he paused.  
He nodded: "I thought she had just picked names and made up stories, turning me into a hero."  
"Could it be that she saw you for the hero you had been to her?"  
He scratched himself behind his left ear, then shook his head: "I'm not a hero. That's Tyler, but not me."  
"Well, I thought it was pretty impressive that you didn't even flinch when Cameron suture your wound," she said, her voice was warm and soothing.  
He knew that she had said it like that to make him feel more comfortable and it worked. If he felt at ease, his shyness and insecurity always ebbed away.  
"My dad thinks... thought," he corrected himself quickly. "He thought that I was only a dreamer, that my head was filled with the fantastic tales my mom had told me. That I wasn't the little brave soldier, as she had like to call me, but that I was weak for wanting to lose myself in my thoughts. Maybe he said it because he didn't like it that I didn't follow into his footsteps... When I would get hurt and would start to cry, my mom would come rushing over and tell me that soldiers never cry. That they are big and strong, and never ever afraid."  
He looked at her, gauging her reaction, and felt strengthened when she didn't look at him as if he were some weird kid with a few screws lose. Apparently she had seen him study her because her smile broadened, the concerned kindness that spoke from her eyes increasing.  
"In that case it's amazing that Tyler managed to make you cry."  
"Just the circumstances," he muttered embarrassed, feeling as if he was about to made fun of. "It was," he paused while trying to find the right words but finding none.  
"Shock," she suggested. "And Tyler's, well, he's a very difficult man to understand."  
"No, he isn't. At least not for me," he said, shaking his head. "I'm him, he's me. I think that I understand him, his reasoning."  
He noticed the curious look on her face: "Like me, he is from this world. Everything I know now, he has known once. If the future world will be anything like my mother described it was... Being here again is tearing him apart. He knows what has been, what will come and he sees what has been again. He might have left the war but the war will never leave him," he explained.  
"But doesn't the same apply to Derek?" She asked slowly.  
"Not really. Derek didn't know what was coming. He didn't know of the future to come, I do. Tyler's war didn't start on Judgment Day. It started long before that... Mine has only just begun."

John leaned a hand against the brick wall to steady himself as he tried to catch his breath. Where had that infiltrator come from? What had happened to Tyler?  
He looked over his shoulder, still panting, but saw no one coming after him. It had happened so fast. One moment he and Tyler had been walking down the street to get some more supplies and the next...  
Tyler had ordered him to run while he had grabbed the unknown man by the collar and had slammed him into a car. Without thinking John had started to run, not knowing where he came from and where he was going.  
During their walk, he had noticed how very aware Tyler had been of the surroundings, of the people that had passed them by. It shouldn't have come as such a shock when Tyler had called "Metal!" followed by "Run!".  
This was the second time, the second time he had encountered an unfamiliar infiltrator looking for them. It no longer made sense that Cameron had said that they would be safe in this time. That Skynet and its machines didn't know they were here, unless... Unless they had been sent back from an altered future.  
A future in which Skynet would know that he and his mom were in Los Angeles in 2007. Was it the future Tyler had been sent from? Until now it hadn't been very clear as to why Tyler had been sent here in the first place, other than to protect him and his mother. It started to dawn on him.  
_No one is ever safe_, his mother's words kept echoing through his mind. He had always hated that phrase, as if it had been thought of just to annoy him. And it had always meant that she was no longer feeling safe and at ease, that she was freaked out about something, always at a moment when he had finally started to fit in and feel safe.  
When they had just arrived in this time Cameron had said that he was safe, because Skynet didn't know they were here. However he was beginning to see that his mother had been right all along. She hadn't repeated that dreaded sentence time and again just for the fun of it but to keep him on edge. He realized now the truth those five words held.  
They had jumped time, altered the course of the future and with that had altered the knowledge of the present. No matter where they would run, they would never be safe unless Skynet would never exist. And that was why they were here: to stop Skynet from ever existing. Cameron, Derek, Tyler, soldiers from the future joined forces with him, his mother and TJ in this day and age in the ultimate attempt to stop Skynet and Judgment Day. Suddenly he realized that, despite of what Tyler had told him earlier in the car, it would be useful if Tyler stayed alive.  
By now he had caught his breath again and looked at his surroundings, trying to view it as Tyler would have done, scanning for possible threats and abnormalities. An alley, dumpsters left and right, a few homeless people. He turned to look towards the beginning of the alley, just in time to see the unknown man come around the corner. Sunlight reflected of the shiny metal of the gun.  
He froze in fear, rooted to the floor, unable to move a muscle or utter a sound. The man aimed for his head and he closed his eyes, jerking at the noise when the gun went off.  
An exploding pain surged through his shoulder. Nausea washed over him at the intensity of the pain. He clutched his left shoulder and felt blood seep through his fingers. He finally dared to look and see what was going on.  
Tyler had tackled the machine and was now trying to get the gun without its reach. John had never felt more relieved in his life as when he saw that Tyler was still alive, knowing that this was his chance to escape. He scrambled to his feet and started to run away from where Tyler and the infiltrator were struggling for the gun.  
He almost tripped when the gun went off again, ducking in case it had been aimed for him. Tyler growled, an eery sound that was almost enough to have him freeze up again, but this time his survival instinct took over and he kept running and stumbling, forgetting all about the gunshot wound and the pain.  
Only to be reminded of again when he grazed a wall when he tried to take a corner at full running speed. He saw spots and felt like passing out but he had to keep going. He looked over his shoulder again, no one was following him. Running smack into a big dumpster, he uttered the foulest curse he could think of.  
Why hadn't he checked the alley first? Behind the dumpster a high chain link fence that would be impossible to climb in time if the machine was still on his tail. There was only one chance left. Excruciating pain set his entire body on fire when he lifted the lid and dove into the dumpster, letting it fall shut after he was in.  
The foul stench, the heat coming from the garbage made him even more nauseous but he had to remain still and quiet if he wanted to escape. Tyler was fearless and John was impressed with the fact that he had once again attacked the infiltratot unarmed, but Tyler was only human and the growl didn't bode well.  
Seconds seemed minutes, minutes seemed hours and John felt himself drift away, exhausted from running. He closed his eyes.  
"John?!" Tyler's voice sounded muffled through the lid.  
His eyes snapped open, his heart pounding wildly in his chest. Cameron, Cromartie were able to immitate voices, to deceive their targets. Was it really Tyler? Carefully and slowly not to make a sound, he pushed the lid open. Just a small crack to see if it was the infiltrator or Tyler.  
"JOHN?!"  
"Ty, I'm here," John called back when he saw it was Tyler, standing at the mouth of the smaller alley, clutching his left forearm.  
"Thank god," Tyler smiled with relief as he entered the alley.  
"Need some help here," John muttered embarrassed, trying to push the lid of the dumpster up.  
"You got it, kid," Tyler nodded, quickly coming over to help him out.  
When Tyler stuck out his left hand to lift up the lid, John saw the wound. Metal uncovered by the gunshot, hydraulics steering Tyler's left arm and hand movement. It was one thing to know about it, an entirely different things to actually see it. He threw up and felt the world around him begin to spin. Daylight was fading and he passed out.

"Com'on, kid!" Tyler growled. "Stay with me!"  
John looked pale as a ghost, slipping in and out of consciousness irregularly. Tyler had known this would happen. He had known that there would be another attempt on John's life, but John hadn't told him the details. Only that it would be on this particular day.  
Why had he insisted on taking the kid with him? Why hadn't he left him in the relative safety of the Connor - home? Why had he again done nothing to prevent it from happening?  
He should have gone out for supplies alone, but John had told him that this had to happen to him. He should have ignored the order, changed the future by leaving John at home.  
He looked to his right side when he heard John make a strange noise. Next to him in the passenger's seat the boy leaned forward, trembling all over, and threw up again. The gunshot wound itself wasn't lethal, a nice and clean through-n-through, but the blood loss could be. He had yanked the backseat belt out and had improvised a tourniquet so it would stop the blood flow. John had let out a pitiful cry and then had passed out again when Tyler had pulled the belt tight around the shoulder.  
Looking at the road and the traffic ahead, Tyler wondered why John had insisted on letting this happen to him. He had sent him back to protect his younger self and his mother.  
Tyler had been instructed to monitor this, only being allowed to interfere if things were to get out of hand.  
_Was this dicey enough, Connor?_ He asked the man he had known in the future in his thoughts.

Tyler stood looking out the window, lost in thoughts, consumed by guilt. Why hadn't he stopped it before it had gotten to John? It had only been a T-867. The right way of snapping its neck caused it to shutdown and reboot was completed after exactly 135 seconds. He needed less than a minute to remove the chip if he had the right tools. It was what he should have done.  
"Are you okay?" He heard TJ ask from somewhere on the left of him.  
Tyler swallowed a couple of times as to regain his composure before he answered: "I'm fine," as he tried to keep any hint of emotion from his voice.  
"How can you say that you are not a hero?" TJ stated. "If it hadn't been for you, John would have been dead."  
"If it hadn't been for me, the boy wouldn't have gotten shot. He wouldn't have been there at all," Tyler said darkly. "What do you mean?" TJ asked hesitantly.  
"I knew," Tyler grumbled. "I fucking knew and still I took him with me."  
"Oh," TJ muttered, not hiding the disappointment from his voice.  
"Think I'm still some hero, kid? Still believe that I'm not a monster?" Tyler asked. "I knew that something like this would happen… I didn't know where or when, but I still took him there, unknowingly but it doesn't justify it… I should've left him at home, where he would've been safe."  
"But it was an order, right?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"John Connor, not this one, ordered you to let it happen, just like you had to let last night happen to me… Those are our wake up calls, right?"  
"Does it make a difference, kid? I should've followed my heart, and not the order… I messed up, kid, again. Now go bug Derek or something."  
He heard TJ leave the room and felt happy to be alone with his thoughts again. It was a peace that didn't last long.  
"You goddamn motherfucker!" Sarah seethed as she stormed in from the kitchen.  
"If that had been up to you," Tyler smirked, aware that it would make things worse but not really caring about it.  
Right now he didn't feel like choosing his words carefully. If she wanted a confrontation, she could have one.  
She ignored his remark completely: "Do you consider that protecting my son?" Her voice trembled vehemently from suppressed anger. "I let him come with you and I get him back with a gunshot wound to the shoulder! How is that protecting my son?"  
He looked at his bandaged arm, remaining silent. There was something different in this situation: normally she would have flown off the handle by now, launching a wild attack on him. When Cameron had gone to get her last night she had only needed a few seconds to lose her temper.  
"I thought that he'd be safe with you," she snapped at him.  
"No one's ever safe," he countered. "You must have told me that a million times."  
He touched the right corner of his mouth with his right thumb. It had started to bleed after she had slapped him hard across the face.  
"That hurts," he grinned mockingly.  
"Just wait until I'm done with you," she told him furiously.  
"What are you going to do?" He challenged her. "Torture me?"  
"I'm going to beat you to death."  
The look of extreme crazy rage wasn't new to him. He had seen it before, in the future, and he knew what, or better who, had created it. And he was going to use that to his advantage.  
"What? No electro-convulsive therapy first?" He taunted. "How very shocking."  
He noticed that she was obviously taken aback by his remark. The fire in her eyes, always present in anger, grew into a blazing inferno and he braced himself. She wouldn't need much to explode, burning up all of her energy in no time by attacking him unplanned. Familiar with her fighting style, he was convinced that the actual fight would be over in less than a minute.  
"How the hell do you know about that?"  
"Like I said: I know you," he answered amused.  
"No," she shook her head. "You don't know me. You don't know anything about me."  
He looked her straight in the eye, daring her to look away: "You'd be amazed by what I know, Connor… How you'd resist when it was time for another therapy… How you'd beg and plead with Dr. Peter Silberman… How much it hurt when the assistant would crank up the juice… How it made you relive your nightmares."  
She looked away, tilting her head a little to the side before lowering it in defeat. Slowly nodding, she turned away a little as if she was going back to the kitchen. A victorious smirk spread across his face: he was still undefeated.  
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!!!"  
He stumbled back when she leaped at him full force, falling over backwards when he tripped over the coffee table. She had him on the floor. He raised his hands to block her punches, trying to grab her by the wrists.  
It felt like his head exploded. The headbutt had been very effective, disorientating him for a while, making him forget to defend. Each hit connected full force.  
Anger boiled over and he threw her off, immediately following after her, so he could pin her down. But she was faster. The headache made him a bit unfocused and he knew that she would take full advantage of it.  
Barely on his knees to get to his feet, another blow to the head. Her favorite unarmed fighting move: the knee to the head. Confused and even more disorientated he shook his head fiercely. He had to regain his focus.  
He grimaced with pain when he felt her kick him in the small of his back. Sending him forwards. Having him end up flat on his stomach. Another kick, this time to his side, left him coughing and gasping for air.  
Avoiding another direct hit from her foot, he rolled away quickly, onto his back. She was on him like a predator on its prey. Her knees at his sides, pressing down his arms. Her fists connecting with whatever she targeted. Pain was everywhere.  
"Mom?!" He heard someone, John, call in the distance. "Cameron?"  
All of a sudden she was gone. Faintly he could hear struggling noises nearby: "Let me go, you metal bitch!"  
He tried to focus on the ceiling fan but the room began to fade into darkness.  
"Cam, is he okay?" John's voice sounded miles away.  
Complete darkness entered.


	18. Chapter 17: The Jester And The Devil

**Chapter 17: The Jester And The Devil**

Nothing mattered anymore. Not the blood dripping through the makeshift bandage, not the attention he was drawing to himself. Nothing mattered to him anymore.  
A few feet away from him thick black smoke was rising from the gaping hole. For 7 years IntelliTech Base had been hidden from sight and now it lay exposed. Noises of heavy battle rose up with the smoke.  
He practically jumped down the steps, aiming and firing at every hccu and infiltrator he could recognize. The command center, where normally he would have analyzed the recon data of the night, was now a battlefield. His troops were fighting with the machines all around him.  
He stumbled over something on the floor and fell to one knee. He looked back and saw Private Robin O'Conlin leaning back against a desk, breathing irregularly, her hands pressed firmly against her abdomen. He could see that she had taken a direct hit in the stomach area and was now fighting to stay alive.  
Just a kid, 17 years old at most, never been in a real battle before. She had been transferred in from Home Plate, John's base, a few months ago. As John had instructed him, he had kept her off the battlefields and on data analyses and communications. He silently wished he hadn't listened to John, that he had taken her with her on recon missions and into battles.  
"You'll be okay, kid," he said with a warm smile.  
"I'm… so… sorry…, sir," she mumbled.  
"There's nothing to be sorry about, O'Conlin. You did good."  
He liked her. She was incredibly smart. It had showed on the second morning after she had come to live and work at IntelliTech Base when he had sat studying the data of that night. She had walked up to the screen and had stood looking at 4 reports intently before mentioning the possibility of a new Skynet factory. The next night he had sent out more recon units to that area and they had confirmed what she had expected.  
"It's not your fault, kid," he said gently while he took his handgun from its holster.  
He moved over a little and studied the wound closely, already knowing that he couldn't save her. His eyes met hers, the look in hers telling him that she understood what he was going to do.  
"She's… still... in… the tunnels..., sir," she began to cough up blood.  
Careful not to hurt her any more, he took her in his arms, gently hugging her like a father would to comfort his hurt daughter.  
"Thank… you…, sir."  
He swallowed hard and felt tears sting in his eyes. He had done this before, being one of the few Resistance fighters able to execute a mercy kill. A wound like this was a long and unfair battle with death. And even if she were to survive, though chances were extremely slim, she would be sent to one of Skynet's many work camps. In this state, she wouldn't last a week in Century, Skynet's most brutal work camp.  
"I'm sorry, kid," he whispered, his voice catching in his throat. "I'm so sorry."  
"Be… safe…, sir."  
He brought the gun up to the side of her head, closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. The shot drowned in the noise of the ongoing battle around them. Unable to look at her, he eased her lifeless body back against the desk.  
"I'm so sorry," he whisper again.  
Calmly he reached for his plasma rifle, rose to his feet and began firing at the hccu's and the infiltrators. All marksman shots to keep them from entering the tunnels. His modded-out rifle, respectfully dubbed 'peace maker' by his troops, doing its work effectively.  
"Fire in the hall!" First Lieutenant Ryan yelled a second before the room bathed in white light and was rocked by a small explosion.  
Blinded by the light for a moment, he felt something hit him in the face. A piece of shrapnel left a deep cut in his left cheek.  
Disconnecting the last bit of humanity remaining, he began taking out the machines between him and the entrance of the tunnel complex. Like an auto-pilot, one machine after another. There was no more anger, no more hate, no more emotion in him left. Time seemed to come to a complete halt when he made a run for the entrance to the tunnel complex, diving away just in time when a laser shot whistled past him. He turned onto his back and fired in the direction the shot had come from.  
He had to stop them. He had to protect her. No matter how many of those metal bastards his troops and him had already taken down, they kept coming. It left him with one last option: he had to blow up the command center, in the hopes that the rubble and debris would make it impossible for the machines to follow him so he could find her and bring her to safety.  
Moving over a little bit to get a better aim, he bumped into someone. He looked to his side and found Sergeant Marks on his stomach. Dead, most likely killed when the first wave of hccu's had stormed the complex.  
"Sorry, Marks," he said monotonically while he patted the body down for any explosives.  
A few seconds later he had found a category 2 phased plasma charge, a smaller version of the ones used out on the battlefields but still highly effective in a room. After taking it from the belt, he pulled up the lid and threw the set explosive into the room.  
The cries of shock and horror sorted no effect on him. He had to ignore it. He had to sacrifice them for as far as they weren't already lost.  
His men and women, all good soldiers of which some had become like friends, were of lesser importance than the assignment John had given him 12 years ago. He remembered how John had taken him aside and had made him swear on his mother's life that he would do whatever it would take to keep Sarah Connor alive.  
A small bright flash was followed by a sea of white light as the explosion rocked the entire complex, knocking him back against the wall. The entrance to the tunnels collapsed.

John laughed loudly at the joke TJ had just told him and it warmed Sarah's heart. It wasn't such a bad thing to have something to laugh about. Even Cameron mimicked laughter, although Sarah was sure that she hadn't understood the joke and that she did it to fit in better.  
Had she worried about Cameron's lack of progress only days before, now Cameron was catching up rapidly. As if something or someone had triggered the machine's learning process again. At least for the time being it was one thing less to worry about.  
She smiled faintly as she watched the three of them from the door opening. To an outsider it would have looked like 3 normal teens hanging around and having some fun, but she knew better. Two of them destined for bigger things, the third a machine with a mission.  
She hung her head and thought about her most recent violent outburst again. It hadn't been her most violent one. That had been when she had escaped from Pescadero the last time.  
She snorted at the thought of Pescadero and that snake Silberman. It didn't matter that he had come to see the light. That he had realized that, all the while he had made fun of her and had conditioned her violent behaviour, she hadn't been the crazy one. Tyler had known about the electro-convulsive therapy she had endured on numerous occasions. How she had indeed struggled against the restraints, had begged and pleaded with Silberman not to do that to her. How the currents surging through her body had driven her into insanity and had made her relive her worst memories and nightmares.  
In a way it had been a relief that they had been alone in the room when he had disclosed that secret. It was one of the many things of which she had decided that John should never know. She wouldn't have known how to explain this to him. But Tyler knew. Why had she told him that in the future? What else had she told him that no one else but her was supposed to know? In his future had they been such good friends that she had just told him her darkest secrets? It were secrets she had sworn to take with her into her grave without anybody else knowing.  
Normally she would have felt some kind of victory but all she could feel now was regret and guilt, which confused her greatly. Nevertheless it changed nothing about the fact that Tyler had known exactly how to push her buttons. It was almost as if he had been looking for a fight with her. So she had mislead him by making him think he had won this argument, catching him off-guard to have the upper hand in the fight immediately.  
She had been so angry with him for not protecting her son, and with herself for letting her son come with him. Tyler had told her about the 24-hours-zone. He had insisted on John tagging along when he had gone out for some more supplies. And then he had brought her son home with a bullet wound to the shoulder.  
The entire afternoon she had been on edge, reacting to every little sound, watching the front door like a hawk. For a while she had tried to divert her attention by talking with TJ but as the afternoon had crept by she had grown worried out of her mind. Like she had been when the signal of John's cell phone had been lost after he had climbed into that truck with coltan.  
She had discovered that TJ was a nice boy with a wicked sense of humor who had become quite talkative once he had started to feel at ease but after an hour into the conversation she couldn't deny the intense feeling of worry any longer. So she had excused herself and had sent in Cameron to take over from her, but TJ had instantly shut up, returning to that silent and intense brooding she had seen during the morning.  
The smile on her face widened when the three teens burst into laughter again after yet another joke from TJ. She hadn't heard the joke but in a way it felt good to have someone around who would make you laugh, especially after all the bad things that had happened the past 24 hours. Just like her son, she was capable of making witty remarks but telling good jokes and having people laugh at them, she could not. She took a deep breath and looked at them one more time before turning to check in on Tyler. Her heart rate shot through the roof when she heard him call for her, in a distressed way like he was looking for her and not finding her.  
Had he finally come to? Was he now looking for her to even the score? But if that was the case, the deep distress in his voice didn't make any sense. She hurried down the hallway, into the living room where she found Tyler thrashing around on the couch in an extremely violent way. Gone from peacefully unconscious to tormented sleep.

"SARAH?!" Tyler shouted again as he descended the stairs to the deeper tunnels where the private quarters of all who lived and worked at IntelliTech Base were.  
"TY?" He heard her call back.  
The thick smoke caused by the explosion made it almost impossible to see where he was going but he knew this place like the back of his hand. The thickness of the smoke lessened and he could make out a form.  
"Stand down, Connor," he said smugly when he saw that she had been aiming for his head.  
A few years back she had been forced to leave active field duty because she had been severely wounded in an attempt to blow up a servodrone-factory. The charges had gone off too soon and she hadn't gotten out of the danger zone in time. Still, despite the fact she had gone partially deaf and had lost her left eye, she always ready and willing to fight.  
Under any other circumstances he would have teased her, knowing how she hated his nickname for her but this wasn't the time or the place for it. They had to get out of here.  
"How the fuck did those metal bastards know, Ty?" She asked furiously.  
"Don't know," he shook his head. "But we gotta get outta here! Blew up the place. Don't know how long."  
"You're hurt!" She exclaimed concerned.  
"We'll worry about that later," he grumbled as he looked over his shoulder into the clouds of smoke that still came drifting down the stairs.  
"Com'on, that way."  
They ran straight out, turning left at the 4th hallway, then turning left again at the 2nd, right at the 7th, straight until the end, knowing that exit 13 was only 2 corners away.  
"Hurry, almost there," he stated.  
"Ty."  
She stopped in her tracks and he ran into her, almost knocking her to the floor. A big man, an infiltrator, came around the corner carrying two plasma rifles. He aimed for the machine's head, pulled the trigger but for the first time since he had modified the weapon "peace maker" refused duty.  
He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back, stepping between the machine and her to shield her. The familiar zings of a plasma rifle being fired, the sickening scent of burning human flesh filling the air. He heard a strange gurgling sound and a dull thud behind him and he whirled around. The shots that had missed him hadn't missed her.  
"Sarah?" He called, rushing over to her and kneeling quickly. "Connor… No," he shook his head. "No… No…," he kept repeating while he gathered her in his arms. "Don't do this."  
"Ty?" Her voice was nothing but a mere whisper.  
"Stay," he ordered her.  
She smiled weakly: "Funny guy."  
"I love you, Connor."  
It was the first time he spoke those words aloud, but they had come too late. He hung his head, took a couple of deep breaths and turned to get to his feet again. He was going to take that metal bastard apart piece by piece, even if it was the last thing he would ever do.  
A chance he would never get because the next moment a scorching pain set every nerve in his left shoulder on fire. A pain so excruciating that he passed out.


	19. Chapter 18: Like Mother, Unlike Son

**Chapter 18: Like Mother, Unlike Son**

Robin Baxter didn't know what to think anymore. The words General Connor said to her falling on deaf ears. He had specifically asked for her. She had to come to Home Plate immediately, without telling anyone where she was going.  
When she had arrived General Connor had lead her to a brightly lit room: "You need to save him," he said as he had brought her to a gurney on which a familiar man lay.  
Lieutenant General Devlin, who had helped her escape from Century and for whom she had cared deeply from the moment she had met him, looked more dead than alive. He was in an extremely bad shape and it amazed her that he was still hanging on. Finally he had managed to get himself so severely injured that there was no saving him, despite General Connor's request, not with the equipment they had to their disposal.  
"I can't, sir," she had muttered sad and upset, feeling a sharp stab of helplessness.  
"You have to," he had said sternly. "Whatever it is that you need, I will get it for you! But you will have to save him."  
"Sir, he's in terrible pain. And he will be for a long time if he survives," she had stated while she had checked the numerous injuries Devlin had sustained. "It's even a miracle that he's still alive. Multiple lacerations and burn wounds, not to mention his left arm-"  
"I know," he had interrupted her.  
"Why won't you let him go in peace, sir?" She had ventured to ask. "It's only a matter of time."  
"Because I can't," he had answered gruffly, unwilling to give her more information.  
He had nodded towards a Private who then had come over to them and had handed her a big metal box. She had opened it and had found a T-867's left arm inside along with a few bottles of a strange red-greenish liquid. Nanoattrioids. She had heard about it but she had never seen it before.  
"You can't do that, sir. Not to him," she had shaken her head fiercely.  
"I have to do. I know what I am asking you to do, Corporal Baxter. But he will survive," he had said in a way as if there wasn't the tiniest bit of doubt in his mind. "Like he has done before," he had added in a softer, gentler voice.  
"I don't understand, sir," she had mumbled utterly confused.  
He had then gestured to all in the room that they should leave. He had turned to look at her, a pained expression on his face: "He will survive, Corporal, like he has done before. But he will need our help."  
"I still-" She had started to say.  
"In 2 years we will find a time displacement device at a Skynet complex in Topanga Canyon."  
"A time displacement device? A time machine?" She had asked, hoping she had understood this right.  
"Yes, Skynet will have sent an infiltrator back in time to kill my mother, and I will have to send one of my best soldiers after it to protect her," he had stated.  
"The Lieutenant General?"  
General Connor had smiled a little: "No. Though I did consider it once, but his destiny lies in another time… Just like yours," he had sighed.  
"Mine?" She had frowned.  
He had heaved another sigh: "Yes, I will send you back to 1989 to find a man named Thomas Devlin."  
"And I have to kill him? I'm a medic, not a killer," she had protested.  
"No, you will have his child-"  
"The hell I won't!" She had seethed.  
"You will have to or," he had said, pointing at the tall man stretched out on the gurney. "He will never be."  
The room had started to spin faster and faster, and she had felt like fainting. He knees had buckled and she had felt two strong hands close around her upper arms to keep her standing. The lights, so very bright, slowly dimmed.  
"Look at me," he had ordered, shaking her gently.  
She opened her eyes again, only to be met by 2 piercing green eyes: "He is your son."  
"But how can that be?" She had squeaked before she almost had slipped into a soothing darkness again. "He's 8 years older than me."  
She had felt him lift her up and carry her over to a chair, carefully setting her down.  
Now she sat looking at him, not hearing a word of what he said to her. Everything seemed so unreal, too unbelievable to understand.

She smiled at her son and gave him a nod of approval while he sat on the floor of the living room. He had taken his father's desktop apart and was now studying everything, even the smallest parts, with great interest. Thomas was going to be so angry with their son again for taking apart and examining yet another appliance. All the TV's, radio's in the house had suffered a similar fate. Even her laptop hadn't been safe from her son's curiosity.  
He not only took them apart to study it, he also put them back together with a few improvements. Only 8 years old, a brilliant mind, and an insatiable hunger for knowledge. She hung her head, an incredible sadness washing over her, when she remembered what she had done to him in the future.  
An icy shiver ran down her spine: she would make him insane in a successful attempt to save his life. She had injected him with nanoattrioids, of which she had discovered by experimenting on rats first that it could cause frenzied insanity. The Devil, she had been part of its creation.  
A warm feeling drove the cold from the memory away when she looked at her son again, who was now reaching for the smallest screwdriver around.  
Tears welled in her eyes. She hadn't known him as her son in the future and she knew her younger self wouldn't either until the day IntelliTech Base would fall again. Still it was a wonderful and comforting thought that she had known him, that she had gotten the chance to spend time with him.  
She had hated General Connor for sending her on this mission but as soon as she had held her infant son in her arms for the first time, she had come to understand the connection they would share in the future.  
"TJ?" She asked.  
He looked up immediately, a sparkle of mischief in his eyes: "Yeah, mom?"  
"Don't you think it's about time that you put daddy's computer back together?"  
"Aw," he sulked. "I don't want to."  
"You can take it apart again when daddy's gone to work tomorrow, but he will need it for his work this evening."  
"Always work. He never does anything fun with us."  
"I know, sweetie. But his work is important to him," she shook her head amused when she saw him reluctantly gather all the parts and pieces of the computer.  
"Always is," he mumbled. "Can't you marry Ben's dad? He's cool."  
She burst into laughter: "Aside from it being illegal, Ben's dad isn't exactly the kind of role model I would want for you."  
"And dad is?" He asked curiously.  
She knew that he knew. That his father had cheated on her more than once. That his father put his career and popularity over his family. That his father thought she was turning him into a dreamer by telling him of a future war in which he was a hero. Her son loved those stories and it was never a problem for her to get him into bed. Getting him to sleep was an entirely different story because he never got enough of hearing her tell her tales. She could only hope that one day he would come to understand why she had told him, that she had meant them as words of warning for a future to come, and that it wouldn't mess him up too much.

The look of concern in General Connor's eyes spoke volumes: numbed and hardened by the everlasting war, called inhuman for making the decisions to send men and women to their certain death, and yet a glimmer of hope shone bright in his eyes. She knew he had his mother's eyes, being one of the very few persons to know that Sarah Connor had still been alive after Judgment Day and that she had been fighting the machines alongside General Connor and Lieutenant General Devlin.  
After the Lieutenant General, her son, Tyler, she corrected herself, had helped her escape from Century in May 2019, he had taken her to IntelliTech Base where she had met the legendary mother of the future, making her swear to never tell a soul. And she hadn't. She hadn't even told her boyfriend of many years.  
"You have everything you need?" He asked.  
"I will need a wetware device," she answered while she looked at Tyler's charts. "The sooner we start on flesh, muscle and skin regeneration, the better it will be for him."  
He nodded in agreement: "Tomorrow morning soon enough?"  
"The sooner, the better, John," she answered coldly. "But tomorrow morning will be soon enough."  
"Good. Anything else?"  
Despite his concern and care for his friend, she couldn't muster any sympathy for him. He was forcing her to do this to her son, to her own flesh and blood.  
She was worried about the reactions Tyler was having to the injections of nanoattrioids that would make it possible for him to use his cyborg left arm. There hadn't been any time to further examine the side-effects of nanoattrioids. The rats she had tried it on had gone completely insane, and they had just been rats. She knew Tyler to be an extremely intelligent man. What would the nanoattrioids do to his brain? What would they do to him?  
Tyler began to thrash again, bucking and flopping in reaction to another 'attack' of the nanoattrioids on his brain.  
"John, get the biscuit!" She shouted. "He'll bite through his tongue if we don't!"

She leaned her head against the door post and smiled lovingly at the sleeping form of her son. It was something she could never get enough of, not even in the future that was now her past.  
After General Connor had told her who he was, she had watched over him like a hawk while he recovered from his injuries. Worried sick to her stomach each time he had suffered a seizure as the nanoattrioids were embedding into his brain and nerve system. General Connor had told her that there had been no other option if they wanted to save his life, appealing to her motherly side each time she had begun to doubt her decision to save Tyler's life.  
He turned on his other side, causing her smile to broaden. She had come from this world and had seen the horrors the future world held in store but she only had to look at her son and she would forget all about it. Only her son mattered.  
"Mom?" He asked in a sleepy whisper.  
"Hey, sweetie," she greeted him, approaching his bed slowly. "Go back to sleep."  
Carefully she sat down on the edge of his bed.  
"Will you tell me another story? Please, mom?" He begged her.  
She chuckled as she knew that he would even get out of bed to follow her around until she would bring him back to bed and tell him a story.  
"What kind of story do you want to hear?"  
"I don't know… You pick a story, mom," he exclaimed, excited that she would tell him another story.  
"In the future there will be a very courageous young man and his name is Tyler Jess Devlin...," she began, deciding on telling him one of his all-time favorites.

"No, Tyler! NO!" She exclaimed while she snatched the gun he was pressing to his temple away from him.  
He looked at her with empty eyes: "Why the fuck do you care?" He asked hollowly.  
"Because I do care, Tyler," she answered.  
His demonic laughter echoed through his room. She shivered: it wasn't the pleasant laughter she had heard when she had served under him at IntelliTech. She would walk through the tunnels and hear warm laughter come from his quarters, usually accompanied by that of Sarah Connor. The two of them were almost always together and it amazed her that they had never gotten romantically involved.  
Once, Sarah had tried to play matchmaker for her and Tyler, but now she was happy she had never acted on that girlish crush she'd had on him after him helping her escape from Century. It was an extremely sickening idea that she had harbored amorous feelings towards him, towards her own son. Unknowingly but still, her stomach protested at the thought.  
Besides even if Tyler hadn't been her son, she would never have been able to compete with the woman he truly loved. And yet her boyfriend, First Lieutenant Derek Reese, thought differently about that. He kept telling her to stay away from Tyler, that no good could ever come from hanging out with an insane person. She really loved Derek but lately he had become possessive and overly concerned.  
With his little brother gone missing in action only recently, she had tried to understand and she had tried to make him understand that he had nothing to fear from Tyler. She had tried to explain to him the complexity of her bond with Tyler, but he hadn't wanted to hear it.  
She smiled faintly when she saw Tyler study her with great curiosity, and she automatically wondered if he was comparing her to the woman he had known as his mother in childhood again. Or was his mind just blank, like he had told her it would be after a fit of madness?  
Except for her and General Connor, everybody was scared to death of him. He was dangerous and unpredictable, impatient and savagely violent. But she felt that he would or could never hurt her, because he would always know who she was. For now the storm in his head had passed.  
"Can I have my gun back, please?" He asked after clearing his throat, holding out his right hand.  
"Don't think so, Tyler," she answered. "John would kill me if I gave you your gun back and you would kill yourself."  
"Didn't think the bastard cared," he growled. "Fucking traitor," he snorted with contempt.  
"We've been over this, Tyler."  
"So we'll go over it again," he mocked. "And again. And again."  
"Don't be like this, Tyler," she sighed. "You have improved so much the past few months."  
"That's because that son of a bitch discovered it would be better to keep me occupied instead of having me roam the corridors like the goddamn ghost of IntelliTech Base! I'm not the insane one here. I'm not the one handing out electro-convulsive therapy in the form of nanoattrioids."  
"You're tired, Tyler. Get some rest and I'll check in on you later," she offered, knowing this was the last time she would see him as Lieutenant General Tyler Jess Devlin.  
Yesterday evening General Connor had ordered her to his quarters and had told her that tonight she would be sent back to 1989. He had given her 24 hours to make things in order and say goodbye. So she had spent her last day in this time, not with Derek but with Tyler.


	20. Chapter 19: The Certainty Of

**Chapter 19: The Certainty Of An Uncertain Future**

General John Connor closed his eyes, feeling incredibly tired all of a sudden. There was no one left but him. Kyle Reese. Derek Reese and his crew. Robin Baxter. Cameron Philips. Tyler Devlin. 'Uncle Bob'. They had all been sent to the times they were most suited for, where they were most needed in.  
He knew that he would miss them, just as he still missed his mother. She had been gone for a while now but he missed her daily, and he missed the old Tyler, the one who had always managed to put things into perspective by making fun of it. His mother had been right when she had started calling him the Jester.  
In his heart he knew that it had been a good thing that she hadn't been around to see the Devil emerge in Tyler. She would probably never have understood. It wasn't that he didn't care for the new Tyler, but over the past 2 years Tyler had transformed into an unrecognizable man as the nanoattrioids had finally been embedded in his brain and nerve system.  
Tyler didn't suffer from the incredible fits of mad rage as much as he had done before, but as the number of times started to decrease, the intensity of it had started to increase. Soon Tyler would become a danger to himself and others. The time jump would stabilize some of the chemical imbalance in his brain and nerve system. So it had been time to send him back to 2007, to the last chapter of his destiny. He had been the last fighter to be sent across time.  
Now General John Connor stood in his private quarters, alone. He still had his troops but the key figures in his life were gone. Kyle Reese would become his father. Derek Reese, his uncle, doing recon for the Connors in that time. Robin Baxter, an intelligent young woman who would become the mother of his best friend. Tyler Devlin, his best friend. The machine he had named Cameron Philips because she had been different from all the other machines he had encountered in his life, deserving of a name.  
She had been sent to kill him. He remembered her pointing the plasma gun at his head, but she hadn't been able to pull the trigger, as if something had caused her to question her mission objectives. Skynet had made a mistake with creating her: she had been made too human. And yet she still was a machine.  
He thought about Tyler once again. He knew that Tyler hated him for what he had done to him, for what he had made Tyler's mother do to him. And about his own mother and what a formidable warrior she had been.  
A sad smile spread across his face when he felt a single tear slide down his cheek. Even the great General John Connor was capable of shedding tears over the lives that would be lost as the battles for the future in the past had only just begun.

The sky was filled with countless stars, but she didn't notice, consumed in thoughts and emotions. Her son would probably say that she was brooding again.  
She had heard him. She had heard him call out for her. She had heard what he had told her. In the nightly silence of the garden she tried to make sense of it all. Kyle had warned her in her dreams, so she should have seen it coming, and yet… It had come as a shock.  
Sarah Connor knew that dreams didn't necessarily hold the truth, that it was the mind processing certain life situations, certain problems. After Kyle had told her of a future to come, she had become the victim of nightmarish dreams, and she had begun to research subject. Reading up on dream theorists like Adler, Freud, Jung and Perls. Stopping the moment she had realized it only had lead her to more questions than answers, but lately her recurring dreams had started to become worse, more ominous.  
Why did John keep sending back fighters who felt more for her than was good for them? First Kyle, and now Tyler. Didn't he realize that it would only complicate matters? Burdened souls with clouded hearts.  
Kyle had loved her, and she had loved him. She still did. Tyler loved her, and she had no idea what to do with that knowledge. In a way she liked him because he openly challenged her and wasn't in the least bit afraid of her, but it couldn't be enough to feel anything more than friendship and a bond of fate, could it?  
The ruckus inside the house woke her up from her thoughts. It sounded a lot like fighting. No doubt in her mind, it had to be Tyler and Derek. And from the sounds of it, they were demolishing the living room.

TJ had heard fighting noises come from the living room, immediately alert. The scare of the run-in with the machine hadn't left him yet. As quietly as possible he had snuck into the living room only to see Tyler towering over an unconscious Derek. He had jumped forward to get between them as Tyler had pulled back with his left to deal the lethal blow to Derek, acting as a human shield.  
Now he looked up at Tyler, seeing the violent madness in the man's eyes. It sent icy shivers of fear up and down his spine. But the adrenaline surging through his veins kept him from backing away. It was time for him to make his first stand.  
"Shit! You were going to kill him?!" He exclaimed, hoping to keep any form of fear from his voice.  
"Of course," Tyler stated.  
TJ shivered: Tyler's voice had been flat, machine-like, mechanical.  
"You can't do that! You can't go around killing people!"  
"Why not?"  
Still there was no change in Tyler's voice.  
"Because you are NOT one of THEM," TJ yelled, trying to get Tyler to snap out of that freaky state of mind.  
"And what would you know about it, kid?"  
"I don't know, but this isn't you, eh me," TJ answered. "You."  
"You don't know me, kid," Tyler said darkly.  
TJ took it as a good sign that there was some emotion back in Tyler's voice: "I do know you."  
"You think you know me, but there's a world of difference between who you are and who I am. Or better what I am."  
"No, I don't believe it. You're still me."  
"No, not anymore, kid. You're like I once was, but who I never can be again. Too much shit has happened for that to be possible."  
"And that makes it okay to kill a man?"  
"Don't you see, kid?! Don't you see that in order to win the war you-"  
"No!" TJ shouted angrily. "Human versus human is what will make Skynet exist. Our constant fear for each other, our continuous need for more and better with less effort is what will create the need for something like Skynet. Our distrust, our economies, our exploitation of resources, our false faith in faulty technology. It is all that contributes to the creation of Skynet."  
"Don't you think I don't know that? Do you think I didn't think of that when I was first confronted with my own fate?" Tyler growled. "But I am not the sick son of a bitch who created Skynet. I didn't built that fucking computer!"  
TJ could see another storm of madness take shape: "Whatever it is that they have done to you, fight it!" He barked.  
"What if you can't fight it? What if it is something so much stronger than you?" Tyler asked while he stood rubbing his forehead with the tips of his fingers until it saw red.  
"You are stronger than anything!" TJ exclaimed convinced. "Just as I will be stronger!"  
"No, you will not. Every person has his or her breaking point, kid. No matter how much of a struggle you put up, it's inevitable."  
TJ nodded. In an odd way he kind of understood what Tyler had meant. It had not been Tyler's choice to make. In a non-traditional he had been forced, by whatever caused his temporary insanity.  
"You were experimented on, made into someone you had never wanted to be. It wasn't your fault, Tyler."  
"Yes, it was! I missed the signs of the storm that was coming."  
"So you just gave up? And you sold yourself out?"  
"What's there left to sell out when everything's already been taken from you? Your pride, your dignity, your feelings and your mind… What you have left when that's all gone?"  
TJ translated the words quickly. Pride: IntelliTech. Dignity: the cyborg's arm. Feelings: his inhuman decisions and actions. Mind, he couldn't place that one.  
"Your mind?" He asked insecurely, not knowing if it would set Tyler off again.  
"Nanoattrioids," Tyler answered. "Frying your brains, kid. Slowly but gradually taking over your thoughts and emotions, if you're not careful."  
"Nanoattrioids?"  
"Are you familiar with the concept of electro-convulsive therapy? Of course, you are. Mom worked at Pescadero State Hospital for a few months."  
"Shock treatment," TJ said in shock.  
"The popular term for it, yes… Nanoattrioids, Skynet's latest piece of technology to control humans, could help me with this," Tyler explained while he raised his left arm. "It was really bad at first. My brains felt as if they were literally on fire, and maybe they were with the nanoattrioids embedding into it."  
TJ noticed that the longer he let Tyler talk, the calmer the man became.  
"That's why you act like one of them, isn't it? Those nanoattrioids cause you to act like a machine, designed and created for annihilation. You don't want it to take over, but the harder you resist-"  
"Yes," Tyler interrupted him.  
"I know that you can beat this, Tyler. And with that I know that I can beat it too," TJ said, smiling faintly.  
It felt like they had finally reached some kind of mutual understanding. He watched as Tyler ran a hand through his hair. A sad smile formed on Tyler's lips.  
"Some hero I must be, huh," Tyler muttered. "I'm sorry, kid."  
"You're still a hero. But, please, don't become the enemy."  
Tyler hung his head in shame: "I can only try, kid," he muttered, slowly turning away and leaving the room.  
TJ heard the front door open and close. It was only now that he realized that they hadn't been alone. Cameron stood protectively in front of John. Sarah stood at the other end of the room.

"Wow!" John exclaimed in awe as he followed TJ into the kitchen. "That was one gutsy move, man."  
"He would've killed Derek if I hadn't," TJ said monotonically as he reached for a glass to pour himself something to drink. "Whatever you have done to him in the future, it has destabilized him."  
"You're him so you'd know, right?" John asked curiously.  
"Right. Technically speaking I am him, but I can't measure him. He's not only torn apart by the time jump. Those nanoattrioids have damaged him severely too."  
John took a deep breath: "And in the future I will have to do that to you too… I don't know if I can."  
"Don't know either but I know that you will have to. It's our destiny, " TJ sighed before taking a sip from the milk he had poured for himself.  
"You have any idea why he's here?"  
"Aside from his mission, you mean?"  
John nodded.  
"No, but I do know that unknowingly you've unleashed a beast in him. If I understood and interpreted it correctly, these nanoattrioids short-circuit his brain, sending him into fits of uncontrollable rage. He called it electro-convulsive therapy, shock treatment… In other words you could say that he is being tortured from the inside out, conditioned into a certain behavior. Maybe there's something in this time that will help him control that beast?"

Sarah knew where she could find him. Where he had been the first few days. On the rooftop of the building across the street.  
"That's why I told you, isn't it?" She asked in a gentle voice when she saw him standing at the edge observing the house. "The other me, the future me, knew and thought it would help you. That if you knew about what Silberman had done to me, you wouldn't feel so, I guess, alone."  
He heaved a deep sigh and remained quiet.  
"The future you come or came from. It doesn't exist anymore, does it? "  
Another sigh, now accompanied by a shrug of his shoulders, but still no reply. She could feel her temper start to rise slowly. Nevertheless if she wanted answers, she had to keep it under control. Besides she wasn't sure if 'the machine' had left him completely yet.  
"You scared the living shit out of him, Tyler," she continued. "Out of all us, actually. I think that even Cameron did a step back."  
"It's for the best," he said slowly. "I'm not a nice guy or a hero… I'll do what I have to do to accomplish my mission."  
"Even give up your humanity?" She asked fearfully.  
"What humanity? I sacrificed that a long time ago… And then I see myself, in TJ, and I see how I used to be. That I actually cared. That I accepted that part of my fate… An orphan finding refuge with the Connors, taught to lead, fight and survive. Destined for greater things, just like John was or is… When I was TJ's age, I didn't meet me. He shouldn't have met me. Now it has become another past, another future. An altered timeline."  
Sarah chuckled: "He's like you. Why else would he have jumped in-between when you were about to kill Derek? You're still good, Tyler, except for that scary totally insane side of yours."


	21. Chapter 20: The Feeling Begins

**Chapter 20: The Feeling Begins**

Instinctively she reached for him, just like she had done before. He knew her and she knew him. They had been lonely souls connected in past and future.  
His arm came around the small of her back and he pulled her firmly against him. A soft sigh escaped her when she crashed into him. She feel his eyes rest on her face, his eyes drawn to her mouth as her teeth tugged nervously at her lower lip.  
She opened her eyes again, searching for his. Their gazes locked and as she rose to meet him halfway, he leaned down, their breath slowly blending. A short, hesitant kiss followed and then he backed away, fading into that familiar electrical blue mist.  
"Kyle?" She called after him. "Kyle, don't go!"  
She wanted to go after him but she was rooted to the floor. A new figure took form in the mist and her heart skipped a beat. Was he coming back?  
Tyler emerged from the thickening electrical blue mist, but it wasn't Tyler. Half of his face was gone, revealing a metal skull. His eyes flashed red.  
Her heart began to pound wildly in her chest and she started to back away. No longer unable to move she turned away and started running. He was on her in a split second, tackling her from behind. The wind got knocked out of her, left her gasping for breath while he turned her over.  
"No!" She screeched, trying to push his left hand away when he grabbed her by the throat.  
She couldn't breathe, her energy slowly ebbing away, as his vice grip on her throat tightened. Dark spots formed before her eyes.  
Sarah sat up with a start, her mind confused, disorientated as to where she was. Trying to catch her breath, to get of her nightmare, she looked at the papers spread out on her bed. She was still hoping to find vital clues as to who was responsible for the creation of Skynet. CyberDyne Systems didn't exist anymore. She had made sure of that, with the help of Miles Dyson, 'Uncle Bob' and her son. Miles Dyson had paid the ultimate price for trying to stop the development of Skynet and the arrival of Judgment Day, in vain. The open hostility from Tarissa Dyson towards her was nothing short of what she had expected. First she had shot him, cowardly in the back as he had tried to escape from her, then they had taken him to CyberDyne to end it all. It hadn't mattered, and that knowledge ate away at her. They hadn't stopped the future. In fact it was starting to feel like all they had done had only worsened it. And now they didn't even know who would build the computer that would blow up the world.  
Music echoed through the house and filled the rooms. While heaving a deeply annoyed sigh, she rolled her eyes and shook her head. How could a machine like Cameron actually understand and appreciate music? She could live with the classical music Cameron had chosen because it soothed her raw emotions. But why did Cameron insist on playing stupid love songs this morning?

…_I've never felt this way._

_For the first time I'm glad._

_For this first time I'm sad._

_I'm dying that you won't stay_.

_If you threw my love away…_

Apparently she wasn't the only one annoyed by this choice of music when she heard angry footsteps approaching, passing by her room. It was Tyler, in his familiar runaway freight train manner. She chuckled: she hadn't been joking when she had told him that even Cameron had backed away. And Cameron was in for it now.

"Turn off that goddamn music!" Tyler ordered when he barged into Cameron's room.  
"Why?" She asked, tilting her head a little.  
"Because it annoys the hell out of me!" He growled while he stalked over to the cd-player and pressed the stop-button.  
"Why? I think it's nice," she stated it as if she meant it.  
"What do you know about nice?" He asked irritated.  
"Nice: pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance. Nice" she answered.  
"And you said that because you know it would get on my nerves, didn't you?"  
"Yes," she replied. "People find that someone reciting the dictionary is annoying. According to John it makes me seem like a freak. Weirdo. Kook-"  
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "But that wasn't the intent of my question, Cameron."  
"I know about nice because I'm different. You and John told me so yourself."  
"Even if we did. It doesn't mean that what you like, another person likes," he said, shaking his head warily.  
"Another person? Am I a person?" She asked.  
"Goddamnit!" He exclaimed, raking a hand through his hair violently. "Yes, Cameron. I think that you are a person. As in a being."  
"But I don't have a heart or a soul," she offered. "I'm a tin man. Sarah said so herself."  
He heaved a deep sigh and shook his head again: "You are a tin man, Cameron. You're a machine, clad in generated human flesh. You were built, not born."  
"John says we will have a built day on the day I was built."  
He rolled his eyes: "Does it make you feel something to know that you will be celebrating a 'birthday'?"  
"I know it is supposed to be nice," she answered.  
"That is not what I asked," he sighed. "Do you feel excitement? Impatience?"  
"My sensors do pick up on unknown data that could fit the description of excitement or impatience."  
Tyler knew what she was aiming at. He remembered how puzzled John and him had been when they had read the original data on her chip. John had seen it first but had called him to verify his findings. Aside from the obvious objective to hunt and kill General John Connor, it had shown signs of an unseen advanced artificial intelligence in connection with human emotions. For hours they had discussed on what to do with this part of her original programming, and had ended up copying that particular input into her new program because it was too valuable to lose, and with that all the risks that came with it.  
His questions now were meant to determine how much she had learned about human emotion in the meantime: "Do you feel anticipation? Looking forward to your built day, to getting presents?"  
"I already got a present. Here," she said walking up to her desk and showing it to him. "It's tight. That's what the girl, who called me a bitch whore, said."  
"Did she give that to you?" He asked, almost unable to keep himself from bursting into laughter.  
"No, she left it. I wanted to give it to Jordon, but she died."  
His happy mood dissolved: "What?!?" He asked cautiously.  
"She was upset, she cried. She jumped, she died."  
He couldn't help but chuckle at her attempt at rhyming. It was bad timing and a bad choice of words but still it amused him.  
"People weren't nice to her," she explained. "Only after she died. John explained that people write notes to dead people when crying is not enough. I still don't understand why. It seems inefficient. They can't read it."  
"No, but it helps the others cope with their loss or their guilt or whatever is eating away at them."  
"Do you write notes?" She asked with an unfamiliar curiosity.  
He shook his head 'no': "What would be the point, Cameron?"  
"But you just said-"  
"I know what I said. But it would be of little use."  
"I think you should write Sarah a note."  
"And why would I do that? When I can walk out of this room, go into the next and talk to her directly?" He asked, letting it slide that she had said 'I think'.  
"No, you won't," she said matter-of-factly.  
"No, I won't," he had to agree with her. "Has John been putting you up to this? Did he tell you to play those goddamn songs?"  
"No," she answered with a slight shake of her head. "I wanted to hear those songs. Not John."  
"Well, no more of it. Or I will see to it that cd-player will end up somewhere the sun don't shine," he said darkly.  
She tilted her head again: "Where?" She asked.  
He heaved a sigh of exasperation and defeat, shook his head once more and left her behind.

John looked from Tyler to his mother and asked himself the question of when their characters would collide once more. Two alpha's under one roof.  
This morning during breakfast - pancakes again - Tyler had seemed calm and relaxed, which had been an odd but welcome change. But now the tension was coming back rapidly. He could see that Tyler was growing tired from being dragged from one store to another.  
A few feet ahead of him and TJ walked Tyler, two feet ahead of Tyler walked his mother. Just like she had done this morning upon deciding to take a trip to the mall to get Tyler some new threads, she was taking charge now. Walking upfront, grabbing Tyler by the arm if he tried to pass a store he didn't want to enter and dragging him inside. There was not a moment she didn't let him know that she was calling the shots.  
As dark clouds were gathering over Tyler's head, John wondered when he would get enough of being bossed around like that. He had no idea what his mother and Tyler had talked about on the rooftop last night after Tyler's extreme outburst of violence but Tyler hadn't kept his word as of yet. Tyler still hadn't told his mother, despite his loss.  
Was it stupid to hope for something good to happen between them? Was it stupid for him to give Tyler a reason to stay? To see his mother happy again? Was it that damn romantic heroism, like Tyler liked to call it, making him want to believe that his mother could be the thing that would stabilize Tyler's short circuiting brains?  
"Not gonna happen," TJ's voice pierced his thoughts.  
"What?" John asked confused.  
"He won't tell," TJ answered slowly.  
"But we had a deal," John protested.  
"Oh, like you've never said yes and did no to get someone of your back," TJ smiled when they passed a group of giggling teenage girls. "Had to do it all the time to get my dad of my case."  
"And that's why you know he would go back on his word," John sighed, looking away from the girls.  
Attention from girls always made him feel uncomfortable and shy. TJ, on the other hand, had left his side and walked over to the giggling girls. John watched as he flirted with a cute brunette. TJ was miles behind on what lay ahead of them in the future but for the first time John felt that he could actually learn something from TJ too. Still it was rather uncharacteristic what TJ did, as John remembered how silent and withdrawn he had been when he had first set foot in the Connor-house.  
Or had stopping Tyler from killing Derek awakened a certain strength or courage in him? Or had it been a mutual wake-up call? Was that why Tyler tried so hard to be on his best behaviour while John could see the increasing struggle? Was that why TJ had pushed his shyness aside and had gone to talk to those girls, knowing that in 4 years the world would come to an end?  
He looked at Tyler again who now stood cursing underneath his breath about a goddamn mule and something else. He chuckled. As he had expected, Tyler had had enough.  
"Do you think it's tactically wise for them to get into an argument in a public place?" Cameron asked, approaching him from the side.  
"Maybe it will make them act like normal people?" He suggested.  
"Most likely scenario will be another fight, if not worse," she answered monotonically. "Here," she pressed a small plastic bag in his hands and walked up to them.  
John watched curiously: "TJ? This you have to see."  
"What's going on, boys?" Derek asked as he joined them.  
"Mom and Ty," John answered with wry grin.  
"Again? Either they should beat each to death or-"  
"Ssshhh," John interrupted his uncle.  
The three of them watched silently as Cameron put on her saddest face and got half between Tyler and Sarah: "Mom, dad, you promised no more fighting," she mimicked disappointment into her voice. "It's MY birthday and YOU promised!"  
John had never seen his mother look more surprised than at that moment, which was on its own not a good thing because she hated surprises, but now she was stunned beyond words, just as Tyler was.  
"God, I hate you both!" Cameron exclaimed tearfully, turning around in a huff, and heading for the parking lot.  
As she passed the three by, she turned a little towards and winked at them, knowing that not far behind were Sarah and Tyler. And they would want answers.

* * *

Lyrics taken from the song _For The First Time _sung by Christopher Cross, which can be found on the soundtrack of _Die Eisprinzessin_ (1995)


	22. Chapter 21: Knowing Me, Knowing You

**Chapter 21: Knowing Me, Knowing You**

"Could you ladies please stop bickering?" Tyler growled as he weaved in and out of traffic.  
"Fine," Sarah snorted with contempy, turning in the passenger's seat to look out the window.  
"I didn't do anything," Cameron stated.  
Tyler looked in the rear-view mirror and caught the amused looks of TJ and John. Derek's could best be described as uninterested. Tyler had been surprised by Cameron's choice of words but he could laugh about it. Sarah, on the other hand, looked like she had just swallowed a bee's nest.  
"No, you just said-" Sarah began again.  
"Ladies!" Tyler warned, swerving the car back onto the right side of the road again.  
From the moment they had reached the car Sarah and Cameron had been in a discussion about tactically wise decisions. However Tyler knew what really bugged Sarah: she had been blindsided. And where he could see it as a joke, she felt like she was the joke. Though he didn't know what upset her more: the fact that Cameron had called her Mom, that Cameron had called him Dad or that Cameron had addressed them as her parents in a public place.  
He knew that Sarah would never come to trust a machine, no matter how well that machine would be reprogrammed. She had always sat at a safe distance while he had been disassembling different series of infiltrators during their down time, always with an ultra-alert look in her eyes, always with her hand resting reassuringly on her plasma rifle. And he knew all too well why she acted like that.  
The machines had taken everything from her. Her life, her love, her sanity, and in a way her child as well. And she knew that an infiltrator down didn't automatically mean that he stayed down. It was the hardest lesson she had learned: Kyle Reese had sacrificed himself for her and still the machine had not been defeated. Only after the hydraulic press had crushed it, it had stopped chasing her. It had been the start of a life she had not wanted and had yet tried to live it to her best abilities.  
Leaning over a little, he turned on the car radio: "In financial news today, the stock market got a boost when it was announced that ZeiraCorp has closed a multi-million dollar deal with the U.S. Army," the announcer droned. "ZeiraCorp CEO Catherine Weaver was pleased to announce the formation of a new division that will be solely in charge of the development of a new defense system."

"I want to talk to you," TJ said firmly as he walked up to him in the living room where Tyler stood watching the financial news with great interest.  
Before last night he would never have thought he could muster up enough courage to ask Tyler such a thing in such a manner. But as he had jumped in-between Derek and Tyler he had felt something change deep inside of him, like something had been awakened.  
He had seen the look of awe on John's face at the mall when he had approached those girls and had actually flirted with one. It was something he had never done in his life before, but now that he knew that most of the fantastic stories his mother had told him would become reality, it felt like he had no more time to lose. He wanted to be useful in the quest to stop this future from happening. He needed to become more like Tyler in order to do so.  
In four years all this would come to a complete end. He remembered the story his mother had told him once about a young girl who had seen the skies catch fire. It had been one of the stories he had never liked and now he realized that it had been his mother telling him of how she had seen Judgment Day take place. The extremely bright flashes of white light that had blinded the world followed by the clouds of fire that had incinerated everything on their destructive paths. The only part of that story he had liked had been when the young girl had been rescued by a woman and her 2 sons in a car on their way to a bomb shelter.  
"I want to talk to you!" He repeated, raising his voice a little.  
Tyler turned his head a little. TJ gulped nervously and had to clear his throat when he saw a murderous look appear on Tyler's face. Normally he would have backed away, with hurt feelings, but now it only made him angry.  
He stalked over to the TV and switched it off: "I want to talk to you, Tyler, NOW!"  
"About what, kid?" Tyler asked with contempt.  
"Stop calling me kid, goddamnit!" TJ exclaimed furiously.  
"Are you trying to do an impersonation of me?" Tyler taunted. "Then I must say that you're not doing a really good job."  
"Ha! I AM YOU! I don't have to imitate or impersonate you to be you!"  
Tyler laughed haughtily: "Good joke, kid. Gotta remember that one," he walked to the TV and bent over to switch it on again.  
TJ saw his chance and jumped on Tyler's back: "You goddamn bastard!" He seethed while he tried to hit Tyler everywhere he could.  
"Kid," Tyler said inexplicably calm all of a sudden. "I'd advice you to let go of me."  
"Why? So you can continue to treat like I'm some goddamn idiot?" TJ howled, emphasizing every word with a punch. "I don't think so!"  
"I said: let go of me," Tyler said slowly.  
"NO!" TJ shouted, tears of anger and frustration streaming freely down his face. "You are NOT the boss of me!"  
"LET… ME… GO!" Tyler growled, reaching over his shoulder with his left hand to grab TJ by the shirt.  
TJ could feel a firm tug at his shirt and his stomach was lodged into his throat when he was sent flying suddenly. The couch creaked under the impact of his crash into it.  
"Don't, kid," Tyler warned him when he scrambled to his feet again. "You don't want this."  
"I told YOU to stop calling ME kid!" TJ hissed, jumping at Tyler again.  
"Why, kid?" Tyler smirked as he sidestepped TJ's wild attack with great ease. "So far you've done nothing that convinces me to call you something else."  
"Why, you son of a bitch!" TJ shouted fully enraged.  
"Now that's no way of talking about our mother, kid," Tyler remarked. "Now if you'll excuse me… I've got more important things to do than to listen to some whiny kid venting his anger at me," he stated smugly while he turned to leave.  
TJ saw red, unable to think anymore. The retreating form of Tyler was the perfect target for all the anger he had been starting to harbor ever since all this began. He was beside himself with rage and he jumped on Tyler's back again. Punching him with an unknown, savage strength. Feeling as if every hit connected.  
Tyler sighed annoyed: "You had to do this. You couldn't walk away."  
"You wouldn't have either!" TJ roared, pulling his forearm firmly against Tyler's throat in a desperate attempt to choke him.  
"Kid," Tyler said impatiently. "This won't help," his voice deformed a little by the pressure TJ was putting on his throat.  
"What the hell is going on in here?" John asked loudly. "Mom?!? Tyler's about to kill TJ!?!"  
"Well, good for… Wait? What?" Sarah exclaimed, dropping whatever she was doing in the kitchen. Another attempt at cooking by the sounds of it."Goddamnit! Tyler?! TJ?!" She grumbled while she pulled TJ from Tyler's back before Tyler would get the chance to do some real damage.  
"Let me at him!" TJ yelled beside himself with anger, wrestling to break free from Sarah's firm hold on him.  
"John, you keep Tyler in here. TJ, kitchen, now!" Sarah said sternly, releasing her hold on TJ and immediately having to grab him by the arm when he tried to storm past her to charge at Tyler again. "And I wouldn't look so smug if I were you, mister!" She snapped at Tyler. "Come on, TJ. Let's get you something to drink so you can calm down."

"That was stupid. You could have gotten yourself killed," Sarah said, handing Tyler a glass of water which he drank greedily. She had made him sit down at the kitchen table and had told him to stay seated.  
"Or was that the plan, TJ?" She asked while she looked him straight in the eye.  
"No," he answered sullenly. "He just got me so mad."  
A faint smile crept across her face. She hadn't always done the right thing where it had concerned being a good mother to John but she was trying. It was why she had tried to settle down, because in the wild days with 'Uncle Bob' she had come to realize that she had been asking the impossible of her son: to be someone he wasn't ready to be yet.  
"But he's not the only one you're mad at, right?" She asked, hoping she was on the right track.  
"No, just the entire world," he answered glumly.  
"And you decided to take that out on the one person who could snap your neck like a twig without needing much encouragement," she chuckled, unable to keep herself from feeling a little amused by that idea.  
"Who else? Can't yell at my mom. Can't hit my dad. Who else? He's the only person I've got left," he remarked heartbroken. "In a weird way."  
"Well, there's Derek, Cameron and me," she offered with a crooked smile.  
"Why should I take it out on you? Derek's from the future too, Cameron is a machine and you… I'd rather take my chance with Tyler," he said with reverence.

In the meantime, in the living room John said: "So," as he sat down in the recliner, wincing when he was reminded of the wound.  
"So what?" Tyler grumbled, flipping through the channels to find some more news on the ZeiraCorp deal.  
"Is that a special trick you have? Getting everybody to hit you?" John asked mockingly.  
"What do you mean?"  
"Mom, Derek, me, and now TJ. We've all taken a swing at you. Except for Cameron but it wouldn't surprise me if I have programmed her not to hit you," John answered warily. "Mom's the only one who has beaten you though."  
Tyler chuckled: "I was already wondering when you would bring that up."  
"So you haven't forgotten about our deal then," John smiled. "She wins, you tell… She has won, and you haven't told her. Yet."  
Tyler took a deep breath: "And I won't."  
"You said-"  
"John! We've been over this," Tyler interrupted him. "Why? Why do you keep on pushing this?"  
"Because you owe me," John answered.  
"I owe you shit, Connor," Tyler said through gritted teeth, turning up the volume of the TV.  
"Yeah, you do… You got me shot," John stated matter-of-factly.  
"For which your mother, and not you, gave me a solid beating. You don't have to remind me," Tyler mumbled.  
"And that evens it out?" John asked sarcastically. "You get me shot and she beats you up and that makes it alright."  
"What is it that you want or need to hear, John, for you to understand that I can't and I won't tell her?" Tyler countered with a question of his own. "I have seen what losing your father has done to her… How she will never stop loving him… There will be a few other men in her life, which she will love to some degree… Besides what if, in the worst case scenario, it were to be mutual? Do you really want to put her through all that pain?"  
"What pain?" John asked innocently.  
"Goddamnit, John. At least that's something you have in common with your future self… stubborn to no end... I like you, kid, but just let it rest."


	23. Chapter 22: Breaking And Entering

**Chapter 22: Breaking And Entering**

"Do I even want to know?" Sarah commented when Tyler and Cameron returned home late that night. "Where or how you got that," she nodded towards the boxes they were carrying in.  
"We paid for it," Cameron answered, holding a big box in her hands.  
Sarah cocked her head a little to the side and read the text on the box: LG Home Cinema HD Flat Screen TeleVision.  
"Oh, I bet you did," Sarah remarked sarcastically when she followed Cameron, curious to find out what was going on. "Hey, what the hell?!" She exclaimed when she saw her bed room being cleared out.  
"Just bring everything that's Sarah's upstairs," Tyler ordered Cameron. "And no snooping," he added with a mischievous grin.  
"Can I ask you what the hell you're doing? This is my bed room!"  
"Was," he corrected her while he took a box cutter and carefully opened the biggest box with it.  
"Still is," she corrected him. "Can't remember giving my permission for this."  
"Oh," he smirked. "Since when do I need permission when I want to set up a command center?"  
"Since it's my room, you fucking moron!" She hissed.  
"We need a command center," he stated while he opened another box. "This is the best room for it. Deal with it."  
"Deal with it?" She echoed furiously. "Deal with it? You really think that you can just waltz in here, throw my things out and I will just gonna let it happen without any consequences?"  
"You'll have to," he answered calmly.  
"Alright," she said icily. "I'm going out for a while. When I get back, I want things to be as they were."  
"Not gonna happen."  
"You sure that you're not just doing this to piss me off?" She asked darkly.  
"No, but it is a most welcome bonus," he chuckled amused.  
She slid her hands into the pockets of her pants to keep herself from strangling him and watched as he began taking apart the TV they had 'bought'.  
"You chase me from my room so you can watch TV in here later on?" She asked extremely irritated.  
"You'll see, and you'll be thankful for it later," he grinned while he yanked the casing open and exposed the electronic circuits. "Okay… Not what I am used to," he mumbled, scratching himself behind his left ear, then shaking his head.  
Strangely enough that little habit made her smile. Tyler was by far the biggest jerk she had ever met but TJ reminded her that he hadn't always been like that. And no matter the fact that she hated that he had hogged her room to turn it into a command center, she knew that he wouldn't do it without a good reason. In warfare, he was light years ahead.  
"I'll ask John and TJ if they can help you," she offered while she turned around and left what had been her bed room.

A few hours later, Tyler stood looking at the big screen on the wall, studying the construction blueprints of the ZeiraCorp building. He needed to memorize it.  
"My best bet is the roof," Derek remarked while he leaned back in a chair.  
"No," Tyler shook his head. "We won't be able to escape. It's a tall building, by the time we get down we walk right into the arms of the waiting cops."  
"The sewers then?" Derek offered hopeful.  
"Thought about it. Keeping it as an option. I think our best bet is the front door."  
"You're kidding, right?" Derek asked incredulously.  
"You're just gonna walk through the front door? And then what? They have security. You won't even make it to the elevators."  
"Nuh-uh," Sarah shook her head. "You're not thinking what I am thinking, are you?"  
Tyler smirked: "You've done it before, Connor."  
"Well, I'm not doing it again. One CyberDyne Systems is enough," Sarah protested.  
"I didn't say we were going to blow up the place. We go in, get their computer and get out."  
"And you think they will let us walk out of the door with their project?" Derek asked sarcastically. "Of course, you do," he added when Tyler looked at him. "You're insane."  
"How do you suppose we get past the security guards without getting arrested or shot?" Sarah asked.  
"With some careful planning," Tyler chuckled. "And a little inside help… I asked TJ and John to both write a Vulnerability Scanner program so we can get into ZeiraCorp's mainframe and look for the weaknesses in their computer systems. After that we release a timed virus that will shutdown all the systems in ZeiraCorp. Security, communications, everything for a certain period of time. Just long enough for them to think it's a fluke."  
"I have no idea where you're going with this," Derek frowned.  
"We'll be the maintenance workers, showing up a few minutes after the altered system goes back online again. The guards will protest and one of us will ask them to call whoever they are supposed to call to confirm our order. Most likely it will be this Weaver and that's where Cameron comes in. The altered system will connect all calls to a disposable cell phone which Cameron will answer."  
"What if it isn't Weaver they're calling?" Sarah asked pointedly.  
"Then she'll have to improvise," Tyler chuckled.  
"Which comes down to that we're waist deep in shit creek," Derek grumbled. "She's a machine, Tyler. She can't think for herself, let alone improvise."  
"She can make decisions based on options given to her. Or did you forget about her little stunt at the mall earlier?" Tyler asked slowly before turning his attention back to the screen.  
Derek smiled faintly but amused. Sarah rolled her eyes and shook her head.  
"And what if the best options haven't been included in her program?"  
"Derek," Tyler sighed.  
"No, what if she fucks up? I don't take it that you're going to include John and TJ on this crazy mission, so that leaves Cameron, Sarah, you and me. I'm not getting my ass shot off because you put too much faith in a goddamn walking calculator!" Derek said angrily, rising to his feet slowly. "You're even more stupid than John. He's just a kid, but you have seen what those goddamn tin cans do!"  
The edge of the desk splintered when Tyler slammed his left fist on it: "I know what they can do!" He growled. "I've felt it, I still feel what they can do. You're such a pathetic little man, First Lieutenant Derek Thomas Reese… You think that you have the patent on hating them for the future wars, for taking away your little brother, for taking away your girlfriend, my mother."  
"Hey, I never said that!" Derek exclaimed.  
yler whirled around and looked at Derek.  
"Hey, fellas, we're planning a break-in here, not each other's murder," Sarah shouted. "If you want to kill each other afterwards, go ahead, be my guest."  
"Oh, he would," Tyler looked straight at Derek. "If he were given the chance," he taunted.  
"Enough!" Sarah exclaimed chafed. "Either we talk about this plan or you two can both go to hell!" She seethed.

"So what's this constant getting on each other's nerves deal between you two?" Sarah asked, leaning back in the passenger's seat while they staked out ZeiraCorp the next morning.  
"What do you mean?" Tyler countered.  
"Derek and you. There seems to be a lot of bad blood between you," she answered. "I think I know his reasons with your mother but I can't figure out yours."  
Tyler took a deep breath, scratched his chin and looked at her sideways: "When IT fell, it could be nothing else but betrayal. The Base was too well hidden to be accidentally found by the metal bastards," he began. "John couldn't understand it either. Each and every person he had ever sent to IT Base had been sworn to secrecy. Not that there were many, countable on two hands. If you came to work at IT, you'd stay with IT. Only Corporal Baxter and a few others, mostly medics, were the ones to leave ITBase again. But they would never tell. John knew exactly who he could trust and not trust… The Reese brothers, well, they were unique. Kyle was a hothead but he could think before acting. Derek, no, he always acted on impulse, always on instinct."  
"Did you know Kyle?" She asked emotionally.  
"In a way, yes. A good soldier, careful but crazy, just like John. Like father, like son," he smiled faintly. "John trusted Kyle, but Derek not so much."  
"You're not saying that Derek betrayed IT, are you?"  
"No, but someone in his crew did. Sayles, Timms or Palters. Sayles and Timms were okay. Good guys, good soldiers, hard to break. But Palters was the rookie. Young kid, hardly any battlefield experience, easy to break. Palters was extremely curious and had a crush on Baxter, who already was Reese's girlfriend at the time. The stupid kid followed her, despite orders otherwise, and so by accident discovered the secret entrance of IT Base. He got caught on the way back to his unit's base," he paused and looked at a car that stopped in front of the ZeiraCorp building. It wasn't the CEO Catherine Weaver.  
"It's simple: if you have useful information, Skynet lets you live because you could be of use again in the future. It makes its machines 'remember' your barcode... So if you want to live, you give something up. He gave up IT," he said monotonically.  
"And you never gave up anything?"  
"Oh yeah, I gave up a lot of things. Old minefields, booby trapped locations, the ocean, but never another human, not even a deserving traitor."  
"And this Palters? Or don't I wanna know it?" She asked hesitantly.  
"You don't wanna know," he answered with a wry smile as he kept clenching and unclenching his left fist. "Now this is interesting," he remarked while he watched a black stretch limousine pull up to the building. "You know the guy, Sarah?"  
"Seen him before," she answered, leaning forwards and squinting a little. "I think I've seen his picture before. But can't remember where."  
"He doesn't look like an ordinary guy," he stated.  
"An infiltrator?"  
"Replacement infiltrator... is more like it," he answered honestly.  
"So she is involved with the development of Skynet... Do you think she has the Turk?" She asked cautiously.  
"Guess we're gonna find out tonight."


	24. Chapter 23: All In The Details

Chapter 23: All In The Details

"So did you get everything?" Tyler asked the moment Cameron climbed out of the third Jeep she had been told to get.  
"I managed to acquire everything," she answered.  
"Good, now remove the old license plates and replace them with these," he instructed her as he handed her three identical license plates.  
Sarah smiled broadly. She had to hand it to him: he had thought of everything, down to the smallest details. It was as if she was seeing him in a whole new light all of a sudden, as the leader he had once been in the future. A take charge kind of guy, keen on the smallest detail to be right, knowing that the smallest oversight could result in major disaster.  
She still wasn't sure about their mission, about their break-in at ZeiraCorp in a few hours, because what had happened at CyberDyne Systems kept forcing its way back into her thoughts. Miles Dyson, unknowingly guilty of destroying the world and the future, had died an innocent that night. He had wanted to set things right and had taken them to CyberDyne Systems. She hadn't fired the fatal shot but as she had watched the bullets of the SWAT team's guns, it felt as if she had killed him. Of course, the authorities had pinned the blame on her: she, and her accomplices, had blown up CyberDyne Systems, and with that she had killed Miles. It was easier to sell to his grieving widow and their children than the true story. Miles Dyson was a hero. He had saved her life by giving her the time she had needed to escape.  
She still could 'feel' the tremor that had rocked the building when the story above them exploded. Closing her eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, she tried to focus on the present again. She looked at Tyler again, who was now checking the cars for any identifiable markings.  
"Take the tags off. That's a TD and that's a CRD," he told Cameron while he picked up a paper bag and looked through the contents. "Fix it," he said as he handed her everything she needed to have the 3 jeeps look completely identical.  
Sarah had to admire him for it: he didn't skip a beat, left nothing to chance. Maybe he felt out of place in this time, corrupted by the constant war in the future, but now he sure knew what he was doing. That idea was enough to give her some peace of mind over their plans for that night. And it wasn't like they were going to blow up the place. Only get the computer, and get out.

Tyler looked at the monitor of the small laptop and then at the ZeiraCorp building. Just a few more minutes and it would be show time. He smiled wryly before starting to enter a few last commands into the system.  
"So you, uhm we, do this a lot in the future then?" Sarah asked curiously.  
"No, we used to do a lot of recon," he answered while he kept putting in last minute commands. "Getting the latest info on Skynet's inventions and developments. And always at the end of the shift you'd be bored out of your mind and you'd sweet-talk me into raising some hell," he smiled warmly when one of many memories he had of it crossed his mind. "Racking up the points by taking out a couple of hccu's and HK's."  
"What?"  
"Just a game we played. 10 points for a servo, 20 for a mobile assault, 50 for a light assault, 75 for a heavy combat chassis, 100 for an infiltrator, 175 for a ground assault and 250 for an aerial recon, you know HK's. They were your favorite target," he explained, turning a little to look at her.  
He could see that it upset her to be told of things she hadn't done yet if she had done them yesterday.  
"I'm sorry," he muttered, returning his attention to the screen again.  
She remained quiet, and he could see from the corner of his eye that she was struggling to keep herself together. He had always thought that she was amazing woman. The way she carried herself made you forget that she wasn't tall or broad. She was larger than life; she was the mother of the future; she was Sarah Connor.  
He chuckled: _Harder than nuclear nails_, John had quipped on numerous occasions when his mother had refused to follow his orders. Despite all she had been through, would still go through, had seen and would still see, she had always remained the most human of them all.  
"Three, two, one, look," he grinned, looking from the screen and nodding towards the ZeiraCorp building. "There she goes," he stated when the building became dark. "And 10 minutes from now we'll be walking in through the front door, pretending to be ordered maintenance workers."  
He heard her heave a deep sigh: "This isn't going to be anything like CyberDyne Systems, Sarah," he said reassuringly while he wondered if he could take her hand and give it a comforting squeeze.  
He decided against it. She wasn't the Sarah Connor he had known, not yet at least.  
"And in 30 minutes we'll walk out of that front door again," he added.  
"I don't know, Tyler. The more I think about it, the less I like it," she said slowly.  
"We can always call it off. I'll think of another plan and we'll do it that way," he offered.  
"No," she shook her head. "If it's the Turk, each minute they have it is one minute too many."

"So far, so good," Derek said smugly while they waited for the elevator that would take them to the floor on which Weaver's office was.  
Tyler kept quiet, his mind racing a mile a minute. He had planned this to the last detail, but there were always external factors that could mess things up. And he had one in mind in particular: the replacement infiltrator. Identified as Troy King, a former employee of Cyberdyne Systems now concerned with the development of robotic arms.  
Normally Tyler could have appreciated the irony of it but not tonight. Perhaps they should have stuck around when they had staked this place out this morning. It was a constant worry in the back of his mind. The metal detectors had prevented that they could take weapons with them, so if King was still around they would be unarmed.  
He could handle the machine but if either Sarah or Derek would come across him they would be screwed.  
"Couldn't that elevator be any slower," Derek complained. "If we had taken the stairs we would have been at Weaver's floor by now."  
"Shut up," Tyler growled.  
The elevator chimed and the door slid open. Carefully Tyler stepped inside and checked it before gesturing Derek and Sarah to enter.  
"Don't be so tense, man," Derek smirked.  
Tyler sent Derek a look of warning: "For someone who complained about possibly getting his ass shot off, you sure are cocky."  
"Lighten up, man," Derek grinned. "This is gonna be a walk in the park. You saw how easily those guards were fooled into believing that we were maintenance workers."  
Tyler took a deep breath and shook his head: "It's going too well... I don't trust it."  
Derek glanced at Sarah and then looked at Tyler: "You want to call off this deal? We're only moments away from getting the computer and you're having second thoughts? I wonder what John was thinking when he promoted you to Lieutenant General."

Tyler listened to the hissing sounds in the hallways of the complex, to doors opening and closing again. There was a gentle knock on the door to his quarters before the door was unlocked and opened. He looked up and tried to focus on the person who had entered his rooms.  
"John wants to see you, Tyler," Robin said friendly. "Do you think you can behave after your outburst just now?"  
His mind felt like it had been on fire for hours and he felt numb. Huddled up in a far corner of his room, his arms wrapped tightly around his legs. It had been one of the worst "attacks" he had suffered ever since John had decided to save his life by turning him into this, this humachine. Not a human anymore, not a machine yet.  
She sat down next to him and carefully placed a hand on his left forearm: "He has a surprise for you."  
He leaned back against the wall and tried to get his thoughts back: "I can't say that I am too fond of John's surprises at the moment."  
She laughed warmly: "I can imagine that, s-... Tyler."  
He looked at her curiously. The 's-' had caught his attention and he wondered if she knew that he was her son. But he couldn't ask because if she didn't, if she had meant to say something else starting with an 's', he had some explaining to do and in his state of mind right now he was not up to it.

Sarah shook her head and gently nudged Tyler in the ribs. He was the leader of this operation and he had tuned out. Was it the elevator ride that had distracted him? That had him lapse into whatever memory he was having right now?  
It was the last thing they could use. The very fact that Tyler had become worried and didn't trust the ease with which this was going had spooked her even more.  
She hadn't liked the plan in the first place, and it had nothing and everything to do with what had happened at CyberDyne Systems so many years ago. Nothing because this was different, carefully planned and only to steal something. Everything because this was another attempt to stop Judgment Day.  
She brushed a strand of hair aside and looked at what floor the elevator was. Only 2 more floors left and they would reach the floor of Weaver's office. Maybe there was nothing to worry about and would it be as easy as it had sounded when Tyler had laid out the plans on how to get this piece of technology? Or maybe all hell would break loose the moment they would step out of the elevator?  
She looked at Tyler again and smiled faintly. She knew that his destiny was to die for the good of the cause, just like it had been for all who had been sent back through time. If they could stop Skynet and Judgment Day for good, even Cameron would have to die. Or in Cameron's case, she would have to be destroyed. Any piece of technology that could lead to a new Skynet, to a new Judgment Day would have to be destroyed.

He could have known. He should have known that it would never be this easy. Rolling from side to side, he dodged the punches King was throwing at him. The moment he had stepped out of the elevator to check if the coast was clear King had jumped on him.  
It had confused him for a second that King hadn't had a change of mission objective. Instead the machine had focused on him, not granting Derek and Sarah more than a glance. King had been sent here to kill him, which meant that this was a machine from the new future, sent back to kill him.  
Feeling impatient, he threw King off and jumped back on his feet: "A T that wants to tango."  
King looked at him and tilted his head: "Lieutenant General Tyler Jess Devlin?" He asked mechanically.  
"Aw, it knows my name," Tyler smirked. "Almost a shame that I will have to shut you down."  
"You have been targeted for termination," King continued undisturbed.  
"Wow, I had not already figured that out myself," Tyler taunted, dodging King's fist directed at the side of his head. "Now, now, that wasn't very nice."  
King grabbed Tyler by the collar of his overall and slammed him into the wall. Tyler slid to the floor and winced.  
"That's gonna leave a bruise," he growled before rolling to one side when King tried to stomp on him.  
Tyler grabbed King by the foot and gave it a good pull. With a loud, metalic thud King landed on his back. Quickly Tyler got up and knelt over the machine, punching it in the face.  
From the corner of his eyes he saw Derek and Sarah come running down the hall, with Derek holding a computer under his arm. He nodded: "Play time's over, my metal friend."  
King tossed him aside, into the wall again, and Tyler gasped for breath. Slowly King rose to his feet and grabbed Tyler by the collar again, yanking him to his feet.  
"Play time's over," King imitated Tyler's voice.


	25. Chapter 24: Life On The Edge

Chapter 24: Life On The Edge

The window shattered into a million pieces when Tyler and Troy King fell through it. Tyler turned quickly and managed to grab the ledge, holding onto to it for dear life, but the machine held onto him. Now they were hanging from the window countless stories above the street.  
He tried to wrestle one foot free so he could start kicking the machine, hoping it would slip, knowing that it would never let go of its target.

Tyler looked cautiously from Robin to John and back.  
"What's the big surprise?" He asked, immediately wincing at the volume of his own voice.  
This headache was killing him, one of the nastier side-effects of a nanoattrioid attack, and he was in no mood to play guessing games. Only a few hours ago he had gone into a fit of violent insanity, taking it to a whole new level. Robin had told him on their walk to John's quarters that it had almost been like the machine had seized control over him. She had seen how his expression had gone blank and heard how his voice had gone from deep and warm to cold and mechanical. She called it 'Skynet-mode'.  
It had been many months since the fall of IntelliTech Base, since John had saved his life, and yet he still felt that he should have died that night, that he should have perished in the flames of hell that had engulfed the base. Everything and almost everyone he had ever cared for had died that fateful night. He had lost everything; his lifework, his troops, his friends, his beloved.  
"What's the big surprise?" He repeated his question impatiently.  
"We've found the traitor," John finally said.  
"Who is it?" He asked darkly, clenching and unclenching his left fist.  
"A rookie named Palters."  
He nodded, still tired and numb from the nanoattrioid-attack: "The name sounds familiar but I can't place it."  
"One of Derek's crew," John explained. "Apparently he discovered where ITBase was and gave it up in exchange for his life."  
He shrugged and remained silent. The pressure on his brain was increasingly slowly and he pressed a hand to the side of his head. It was the telltale sign that the nanoattrioids were stirring.  
John looked at Robin: "Can you leave us for a couple of minutes? I need to talk to him in private."  
"Are you sure, John?"  
"There are two armed guards on the other side of the door. I'll take my chances, Robin."  
"If he reaches 'Skynet-mode' I doubt two guards will help much."  
John tilted his head a little: "Skynet-mode?"  
"A side-effect of the nanoattrioids. They take over and he becomes like a machine," Robin explained slowly. "There's no way of telling what he'll do. What if you're talking to him and his brain is attack by the nanoattrioids again."  
"It's a risk I have to take, Robin. I know that you're worried about him-"  
"You're damn right I am worried about him," she interrupted him.  
"This is something very personal, Robin. It's something I am dreading to tell him but I need to tell him. So the healing can begin."

TJ looked up from his computer screen and smiled sadly. By now, he hated the fantastic stories his mother had told him, and yet when he thought about them while looking at Tyler, it made him feel that his life finally had a purpose. To be a champion for the human race. So much had changed. The future had changed beyond imagination now that he had met his future self.  
His mind wandered back to the night Cromartie, as the Derek had called the machine, had come to kill him and had killed his father. How could it feel like it had happened years ago when it actually had only been a few days?  
Sadness crashed over him like a tidal wave and he wiped the tears from his eyes, unable to hold them back. His father, a flawed man in many ways, had been his last connection to his mother and had been his father, despite their many differences in thought and opinion.  
"Well, I'm no longer the dreamer, dad," he whispered as he switched off the computer screen and got to his feet.  
He walked into the bathroom and looked at his reflection in the mirror. Though he was obsessed with computers and robotics, he wasn't a nerdy-looking teenager. A warm smile crept across his face when he thought about Suzy Miller, a cheerleader who had asked him to go to the Summer Dance with her. He had seen her hang around his locker in the weeks before she came up to him and asked him to take her to the dance. After hesitating for a moment he had said yes. It would be his reward for graduating high school and going to university.  
It had been rewarding in more than one way: not only had he had a good time at the dance, something he would never have gone to if he hadn't been asked for it, he had had a good time in the backseat of his father's car as well. Suzy had been all over him the entire evening, which had lead to some pretty awkward situations in which he hadn't known what he was supposed to do. It had lead to a lot of scratching himself behind his left ear.  
When he had driven her home after the dance, she had asked him to take a detour to Lover's Peak. After he had parked the car and had sat enjoying the view, she had moved to the backseat and had asked him to join her. He had been uneasy at first, suppressing the need to bolt constantly but after she had assured him that it was going to be okay, he had relaxed. She had taken the lead when she had noticed he hadn't been entirely over his initial shyness yet.  
After that evening and that experience, he had called her a couple of times to see if she wanted to go on another date, but either no one had answered or he had gotten one of her parents on the phone, promising him that she would call back as soon as possible. She had never called him back and now he had 'disappeared'.  
He looked in the mirror again and jumped with a start when he thought that he saw Tyler's reflection staring back at him. A quick look over his shoulder told him that he was alone in the bathroom. Tyler's menacing appearance reflected in the mirror had only been a figment of his wild imagination.

Finally, Tyler thought when he had managed to free one foot and had started kicking downwards at the machine. He concentrated on his left hand and put into lock-mode. He could hate his cyborg arm all he wanted; he had discovered it did have its benefits too, like when you were hanging from a tall building. Others would have started to slip by now, inevitably falling to their death, but he only had to put it into lock-mode to hold on. No doubt he would feel the strain on his shoulder later on, especially with a few hundreds extra pounds of steel hanging on his feet.  
"Hey! Some help would be nice!" He shouted, looking up at the remains of the shattered window.  
Sarah looked over the edge, disappeared for what seemed an eternity and then returned, aiming a shotgun at King: "I can't get a clear shot!" She called to him.  
"Just shoot that piece of junkyard filler… I'll live!" He barked.  
He could see that she adjusted her aim and pulled the trigger. A shot rang out and he felt his left calf begin to burn. The weight pulling down on him shifted: the machine had started to slip.  
"Again!" He growled through gritted teeth.  
Another shot rang out and the burning sensation in his calf grew stronger. He looked down at King and saw that the machine was barely holding on.  
"Again! Don't give it time to recover!"  
A third shot rang out and suddenly the extra weight was gone. He rested his head against the cool window of the floor below before he looked down and watched the machine plummet to the street below.  
After removing lock-mode, he hoisted himself up and sat down on the edge, looking at his bleeding leg before looking at Derek and Sarah. He had known that the bullets would ricochet off of the metal and that he would get hit, and Sarah must have known that too since she had said that she couldn't get a clear shot.  
"Where did you find that?" He asked while he nodded towards the shotgun.  
"Weaver's office," Derek answered. "I saw it when I got the Turk. Went to get it when the tin can took it outside with you."  
Tyler looked at Sarah who had a distant look on her face: "Hey, you did good," he managed to smile warmly.  
The elevator chimed and the doors slid open. Tyler turned his head, immediately ultra-alert again. Sarah grabbed the shotgun and took aim. Derek stood back with the Turk under his arm. It can't be King but maybe it's a guard? Tyler thought.  
Out of the elevator stepped Cameron.  
"What are you doing here?" Derek asked darkly.  
"You needed help," Cameron answered. "I am here to help."  
"What did you do with the guards?" Sarah asked sharply.  
"They are currently indisposed," Cameron replied.  
Sarah looked darkly at Cameron:" You've killed them, didn't you?"  
"No, my mission didn't require it," Cameron answered.  
The sound of fast approaching squad cars echoed between the tall buildings and reached their floor. Tyler looked down to the street where the first police cars pulled up to the ZeiraCorp building.  
"We've got company," he smirked.  
Cameron tilted her head a little: "Yes, one of the guards pushed the alarm button before I got to him."  
Tyler struggled to his feet and almost lost his footing when a sharp pain shot through his wounded leg.  
Sarah looked at him with great concern: "Can you walk?"  
Tyler nodded slowly before looking at the bloody pant leg of his overall: "Yeah."  
"Good, 'cause we gotta run," Sarah stated matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean? She was my daughter?" Tyler seethed, beyond himself with rage.  
John looked at his best friend and felt an incredible sadness wash over him: "I'm so sorry, Tyler, but I couldn't tell you any sooner."  
"The hell you could! You just didn't want to! All part of your higher plan, you goddamn son of a bitch!"  
John kept silent and closed his eyes while he felt Tyler's left hand close around his throat.  
"You have known all this time! And you never told me!" Tyler hissed furiously.  
"I couldn't, Tyler. I know that I should have-"  
"But it would have fucked up your great plans! Am I just another pawn, John, in your sick and twisted game of chess with Skynet? Another means to beat it?"  
John opened his eyes again and tried to catch a full breath now that Tyler was slowly increasing the pressure on his throat: "I am so sorry, Tyler."  
"I bet you are… How dare you say that you're my friend? While all I am is the product of your breeding program!"  
"Would it really have made a difference if you had known that she was your daughter?"  
Tyler let go of him like he was on fire and he slumped to the floor. He looked up at Tyler and saw the disgust on his face.  
"Yes, it would have," Tyler growled.  
John coughed and tried to breathe while he watched his friend fall to his knees and press his hands against his head. The nano's were coming.  
"She wouldn't have been so unprepared… I would've taken her with me on recon, out onto the battlefield… I would've protected her," Tyler muttered tearfully. "She never stood a chance when the machines came… She died because of you… I might've pulled the trigger but you killed her, you heartless bastard!"  
"What?!?" John exclaimed shocked.  
"You sadistic son of a bitch! Now I did not mercy-kill Private O'Conlin, I murdered my own flesh and blood… Is this my punishment for failing my mission to keep your mother safe?" Tyler howled, pressing his hands more firmly to the sides of his head.

"I'll drive," Sarah said to Tyler when they reached the three jeeps parked in the alley behind the ZeiraCorp building, watching as Derek and Cameron got in two of the cars. "You keep tuning out. First on the elevator ride up and then on the elevator ride down."  
"It's this time. It triggers memories at inconvenient moments."  
"No kidding," she grumbled while she rolled her eyes.  
"But, no, I'll drive," Tyler objected, climbing behind the wheel of the third jeep.  
"But you're hurt… Your leg-"  
"I'll be fine. Just a scratch," he growled annoyed while he started the car. "Get in! Now!"  
She jogged to the passenger's side and climbed into the jeep.  
"Buckle up. This is going to be one rollercoaster ride," he grinned, putting it into drive and flooring the gas pedal.  
Sarah could feel the tires spin and slip underneath her and the next moment she was pushed back firmly into her seat when the car jumped forward.

High above them the floor in Weaver's office became distorted, slowly growing into silver metallic blob, then forming into the shape of a woman. A few seconds later Catherine Weaver walked to where the computer had been and she smirked: the Connors and their allies had taken the bait.  
She knew that the Lieutenant General wasn't born yesterday and that with his thinking capacities he would soon start to doubt the relative ease with which they had stolen the computer. That's why she had needed Troy King, because even now it would only be a matter of time before Devlin would become suspicious and would take the computer apart piece by piece, undoubtedly finding the tracking device she had placed.  
Slowly she turned and walked up to a painting of her family. She looked at the woman whose form and identity she had stolen, at her late husband and at her daughter Savannah. That little human knew something was off with her mommy. She would dispose of that little disobedient rodent soon enough.  
Removing the painting from the wall revealed a wall safe and she punched in the code. A soft click and the safe door went open. She smiled upon seeing the real Turk, sliding a finger over the slick surface: "You're going to change the world."  
She heard a noise behind her and remembered just on time that she had to look over her shoulder instead of morphing. It could be another human. Troy King entered the office, heavily damaged from the fall.  
He was a stupid machine, an inferior T-867. It had been so easy for her to shut him down, remove his chip and change his mission objective, overwriting any code that would keep him for hunting and killing Lieutenant General Tyler Jess Devlin. Troy King had at least served his purpose of creating more of a diversion so Devlin would need a little more time to realize that it was all a trap. Time she would use to locate John Connor.

Tyler looked in the rearview mirror and smiled amused when he saw an army of police cars in pursuit, with their sirens wailing and lights flashing. He looked to his left and caught Derek looking at him in the jeep next to them. He nodded and Derek nodded back. Derek punched in the gas pedal and let the jeep rip, suddenly taking a sharp corner to the left.  
Now he looked to his right and gave Cameron a nod. Cameron, in the jeep on their other side, nodded and steered her car sharply to the right.  
Tyler grinned: "Let the games begin."  
Just like he had anticipated the large group of police cars chasing them broke up in three separate groups.

Twenty minutes later Tyler turned the car into a parking garage, drove up to the 6th floor and parked it in a far end corner.  
"Here," he said, quickly picking up the Turk and pushing it into Sarah's hands. "Go! I'll distract them while you get the hell outta here."  
She looked at him with one eyebrow raised sardonically: "You've got to be kidding me. We're miles away from home. I'm not walking that."  
He reached into a pocket of his overall: "See that dark blue sedan over there?" He asked while he pulled out a set of car keys. "Take the car, go home and give the Turk to TJ. Tell him to look for the mark. He'll know what to do."  
She took the car keys from him: "The mark?"  
Blue and red lights flashed through the night.  
"Hurry, this isn't gonna work if they see you switch cars," he growled, gesturing that she should get out. "Don't draw attention and you'll be home soon… Be safe, Connor."  
"Be safe, Devlin," she grumbled while she got out of the car, closed the door behind her and looked at the car keys in her hand before looking at the car.  
He watched her walk towards the car, the Turk under one arm, and the keys in her other hand. A faint smile formed on his lips.  
With enough distance between her and him, he put the jeep into reverse, floored the gas pedal again and let the car turn a quick 180 by yanking the steering wheel when there was enough room to turn the car. The tires screeched and gave off smoke when he floored the gas pedal again.

Sarah watched as Tyler sped off, then turned to the sedan and unlocked it. After putting the Turk in the trunk, she took off the overall and put it in the nearest trash can. She got into the car and leaned back in her seat, thinking about what Tyler could have possibly meant with the mark. It didn't bode well, like he didn't trust it.  
Screeching tires and noise from metal colliding with metal echoed through the garage and woke her up from her thoughts. She smiled wearily: the Devil was raising hell a few floors down.  
A few minutes later the red and blue flashing lights decreased in numbers as the wailing sirens distanced themselves from the parking garage.  
She turned the key and the car sprung to life. After putting it in reverse, she let the car turn out of the parking spot. She looked around, put it in drive and drove off slowly, shaking her head when she saw the destruction on the second floor.  
Not a car had been spared, support pillars had been chipped, shattered glass was everywhere. A police officer waved her over and she pulled up to him, rolling down her window quickly.  
"Evening, ma'am," the police officer said friendly while he looked into her car.  
She faked a smiled: "Evening, officer… What the hell happened here?" She asked innocently.  
"A dangerous fugitive, ma'am, involved in breaking and entering at ZeiraCorp and theft."  
She shook her head and sighed: "The crime rates nowadays. Always stealing, never buying."  
"We know he had help, ma'am, so I'd like to see your license and registration, please," the police office said.  
She gulped nervously and pretended to be offended: "Do I look like the kind of person who would help a criminal?"  
"No, ma'am, but we need to make sure," the police officer mumbled.  
Here goes nothing, she thought as she leaned over and opened the glove compartment. She found a white envelope with her driver's license and the car's registration in it. A smile of relief spread across her face: Tyler had thought about just everything.  
She handed the papers over to the waiting police officer who looked at them, jotted down her name and address on his notepad and then handed them back to her.  
"I'm sorry for any inconvenience, ma'am," the police officer smiled faintly. "Have a pleasant evening, Ms. Baum."  
She nodded and rolled up the window before she put away the papers. After one last look at the damage and a wave at the police officer she drove off.


	26. Chapter 25: Only The Dead Have Seen

Chapter 25: Only The Dead Have Seen The End Of The War

The Devil had risen from the blazing fires of Hell

Robin watched with worry as Tyler bucked and flopped during another vehement nanoattrioid attack. It pained her to see him like this because she had done this to him.  
She tried not to think too much about the complexity of timelines and altered timelines. Looking at him only one question remained that she hoped could be answered one day: Did he know who she was? That she was his mother? Or would be his mother?  
She took his right hand into hers and looked at it. Burn marks and scars, all adding to the story of his life. A life she felt she could never want for him but yet had to give to him. Just like General John Connor, he was important for the Resistance and the survival of mankind. Without him things would become unnecessarily but extremely complicated in the future. More than once it had crossed her mind to refuse this mission to become Tyler's mother in the past.  
Nevertheless if she were to do that, she would change the future in unforeseen ways. Just like Sarah Connor she had been left with no choice but to accept her destiny. Without their sons, the human race would be lost.  
She let her eyes drift over his face, over the stitches of the long cut across his left cheek, the scars of previous battles won or lost. A faint smile spread across her face when she remembered her earlier encounters with him. How he, John and Sarah Connor had saved her life by stopping on their way to the bomb shelter and taking her with them. And how he had helped her escape from Century on a rogue mission. She had always thought that he was one crazy son of a bitch for letting himself get caught so he could help others escape from Skynet's death camps. And now it had turned out that she was that bitch. It filled her with a weird sense of pride in the same way it made her sick to her stomach to think about that short time she had harboured romantic feelings towards him for being a hero. At that time she hadn't known about their family bond.  
It was a strange thought to have: she had known him before she had even been born.  
How had the legendary Sarah Connor ever managed not to go crazy just trying to figure out the timelines and the altered timelines? Did the timeline even change at all or was it only the idea that destiny and the future could be changed?  
She smiled sadly when she thought about the woman who had been so very important for the future, for their leader John Connor and for her son Tyler Devlin

TJ looked up from the computer screen when he heard a car pull up to the house. Slowly he got up and cautiously walked over to the window to see who it was.  
A faint smile formed on his lips when he watched Sarah get out of the dark sedan. She walked to the back of the car, opened the trunk and took out a computer. Now it would be up to him to determine if it was the computer they were looking for or if it was something else.  
He could see why Tyler loved her: the determination on her face and the firm stride while she walked to the house, not to mention that she was a beautiful woman. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to calm his racing thoughts: he was Tyler and Tyler was him.  
If he hadn't met his future self, he wouldn't have known what he knew now until he was the one being sent back in time to stop Skynet and Judgment Day. Now he couldn't stop thinking about everything he had discovered the past few days. He had always thought that his mother had embellished the hero's feelings for the heroine in her fantastic stories but now he had seen that they were nothing short of the truth.  
Did those feelings already exist, slumbering deep inside of him, only to awaken one day in the far future? He realized that in a way they already existed, based on his superficial idea of her being a very attractive woman. He shook his head to rid his thoughts. It was all such a teenage cliché: a crush on the mother of a friend. Never had he thought that he could sink to such shallowness.  
"TJ?!?" He heard her call from downstairs.

Sarah looked at him and smiled tiredly. This night everything would change forever because come tomorrow she would be dead.  
Again she looked at him, at the man who had been her protector for the past 12 years and her best friend for the past 17 years. She had always known that he would come to love her differently than a son would love his mother, and despite the fact that she loved him back she had never acted on those feelings, knowing it would weaken and distract him.  
It had been weird and unreal to meet TJ only a few days after he had so unselfishly sacrificed his life to keep her son and her safe. That quiet well-behaved boy had grown into the loudmouthed ill-behaved man she sat looking at now. A man, who had nearly driven her insane with his knowledge about her when he had been sent back to 2007, with whom she had shared her deepest and darkest secrets and her biggest fears. She smiled wryly: in 2 years he would be sent back on a classified mission and he would drive her insane again.  
She had told him everything except about the fall of IntelliTech Base, because she knew that if she did, he would stay and give his life to protect her. It was so tempting to tell him that she loved him, now that death was waiting for her at the door. He would stay and love her with a desperate passion and she would hold onto him for dear life in the few hours they had left.  
Nevertheless IntelliTech Base had to fall in the early hours of Wednesday December 4th, 2025. It was the last part of her destiny. No one knew what horrors would take place here in a few hours except her. She could have told him or John but it would alter the timeline in unforeseen ways. The future, the past, it would all change.  
Would her need to feel like a desirable woman one last time be the death of him? There had been women in Tyler's life but he had never allowed love to enter. He would, like he called it, satisfy his most primal urges from time to time.  
Could and should she take a chance? She decided to ignore her reason and act on impulse.  
She cleared her throat: "Ty, there's-"  
A firm knock on his door interrupted her. Without waiting for his "enter" the door swung open and First Lieutenant Ryan entered: "Sir, early evening recon reports from G3 and K3 show signs of increased hccu activity near Century and Forrester."  
Sarah heaved a deeply annoyed sigh and could feel Tyler's eyes rest on her for a few seconds. Maybe this interruption by First Lieutenant Ryan had been a sign from fate that she should not tell him what she had been about to tell him.  
"Two minutes, Lieutenant Ryan," Tyler growled irritated.  
"As you wish, sir. Ma'am," First Lieutenant Ryan said while she saluted them and left.  
"You were saying?" Tyler urged her.  
She took a deep breath and looked away, avoiding any eye contact between them: "There's still some cat-rat-stew left if you're still hungry."  
"Oh," he muttered.  
She could hear the disappointment in his voice but it was in everybody's best interest. Or at least that was what she tried to convince herself of.

General John Connor sat at his desk and studied the latest recon and battlefield reports. The loss of human lives was gradually decreasing now that Lieutenant General Devlin had returned to the battlefield to lead what remained of once had been the IntelliTech division. Skynet was losing ground very fast but the war would never end. The machines would always be there, if not in presence then in thoughts and memories.  
He hated himself for what he had done to his best friend. Nevertheless just like it had been unavoidable for him to become the warrior-prophet, it had been impossible to avoid this part of Tyler's destiny. When he, as a teenager, had met Tyler, it had shocked him beyond a reason that he had been so ruthless as to turn the man into this half man, half machine, but now he had come to understand that it was a part of Tyler's fate.  
It had been a year and a half since the fall of IntelliTech Base and despite his changed personality Tyler had proven to be irreplaceable. Based on Tyler's analyses of the recon and battle reports and his advises Skynet was dealt blow after blow and human lives were saved. Resistance strongholds were evacuated on time and prisoners were rescued from Skynet's death camps because Tyler was still with them.  
There was a firm knock on his door.  
"Enter!" He said gruffly.  
The door opened slowly and a young woman entered the room.  
"Ah Private Young," John smiled wearily. "Do you have the latest reports for me?"  
He studied his protégée closely and immediately could see that there was something different about her today. She had disappeared a week ago and scouts had told him she had been held prisoner at the super carrier USS Forrester. This morning she had returned to Home Plate but John hadn't had the time to speak to her yet. He knew exactly what the difference was and heaved a deep, sad sigh.  
"Are you here to kill me?" He asked slowly while he reached under his desk and closed his hand around the grip of his electromagnetic pulse handgun.  
Private Young tilted her head a little and looked curiously at him. He yanked the gun from where it had been taped under his desk and aimed at her.  
"Are you here to kill me, John?" She asked monotonically.  
As he tried not to get distracted by the strong feeling of déjà-vu, he adjusted his aim and pulled the trigger. A small bluish white ball hit her and she shook and tremble before she shut down.  
"Welcome back, Cameron," he said wryly, taking his swiss army knife from the back pocket of his worn down army pants.  
Hundred and twenty seconds until reboot, he had to act fast. Without caring for the damage he cut into her synthetic flesh, exposed the lid to the compartment that held her chip, opened it and removed her chip. He had known that she would come for him, like she had done in the past but then as his protector.

John watched closely while TJ took apart the stolen computer. He hoped and prayed that it was the Turk, the piece of technology they had been looking for. TJ placed the screws in a really strange pattern that he couldn't place until he heard TJ say: "Queen to c5, and Queen to e2."  
"You play chess?" He asked curiously as he suddenly understood TJ's pattern. "It's from Stefan Levitsky versus Frank James Marshall, Breslau, 1912, right?"  
"Right," TJ answered while he took out the motherboard and studied it closely.  
"What's wrong?" John asked worriedly when he saw concern appear on TJ's face.  
"It's a tracker," TJ replied, pulling out a small computer chip like part. "They know where we are. Guess Tyler was right. This thing is marked."  
TJ showed the tracking device to John. It was no bigger than a fifth of an inch. It was amazing that TJ had noticed it.  
"It's a fakey," TJ continued. "If this thing is supposed to be the computer that will blow up the world, I will eat my shorts."  
John gulped nervously and felt a ball of panic rise from deep within the pits of his stomach: "It's a trap?"  
TJ nodded slowly: "Tyler was already afraid it would be a trap."  
"But shouldn't he have known from his own past?"  
"This has become an altered timeline, John. Nothing's the same anymore. He had never met his future self. It all happened before he became part of your family."  
"Altered timeline?"  
"When you will send me back, I will remember this. And all this will probably never happen, and if it happens it will be in a different way," TJ explained.  
Cameron, who had come home only a few minutes before, walked into the living room and noticed the small device TJ was holding. She came closer and looked at the device: "We need to leave. It is not safe here anymore."  
"No shit, Einstein," John growled annoyed.  
"I am Cameron, not Einstein," Cameron stated matter-of-factly.  
John rolled his eyes while TJ burst into laughter: "It's a figure of speech, Cameron."  
"Oh, thank you," she began but corrected herself. "I get it."  
John glared at her before turning to TJ who sat laughing as if he had just heard the best joke in ages: "What?"  
"It's funny… We're in danger and you two argue over a figure of speech," TJ chuckled.  
"And you think that's hilarious?" John asked irritated.  
"In a sick way it is," TJ smirked while he gestured Cameron to come even closer: "Here, take this and drive to the other side of town," he instructed her, handing her the small tracking device.  
"It's not part of my mission," she remarked. "We need to leave now."  
John watched as TJ looked her in the eye: "Take the device to the other side of town."  
Cameron tilted her head a little, turned her attention to the small device and said: "Smashing it would save time."  
"And taking it somewhere else might buy us some time," TJ countered impatiently.

In the meantime, Sarah sat at the kitchen table, trying to piece together what had happened at ZeiraCorp earlier. Tyler had been right when he had said that it would be nothing like CyberDyne Systems, and yet the field trip had upset her.  
She had been hardened by the things she had seen and experienced, turned into a warrior-mom by the lessons she had learned, on the eternal mission to keep her son safe no matter at what cost. And yet when Tyler and the machine had crashed through the window so many stories above street level her heart had jolted in a strange panic. How relieved she had felt when she had heard him call for help where she had thought that he had plummeted to his death, taking the machine with him on his way down. She had known that shooting the machine would case the bullets to deflect and possibly hit Tyler. It made her sick to her stomach that she had injured him, unintentionally but it made no difference to her.  
She heaved a sad sigh and wondered if they would ever see Tyler again. His time with them was coming to an end and she worried that this could be the night he would die. Silently she cursed her son in the future for sending back yet another soldier, assigned to protect them, who was not allowed to stay with them.  
Would she have felt differently if she hadn't heard his confession of love while he had been caught in one of his many nightmares? If she looked deep into her heart and soul, she had to admit that the answer was no. She would still have come to like him, because he challenged and defied her at the same time. He was a strong man, dangerous and crazy one moment, calm and caring the next. Just like Kyle Reese had been.  
Nevertheless any form of romance was out of the question because Tyler kept his distance to her, like he didn't want her to know or to care. Just like Kyle Reese, he had accepted his destiny to die for the future.  
Silent tears rolled down her cheeks and she wiped them away quickly. She knew that she shouldn't cry, that it was all for the greater good but she was worried how many more there would have to die before they could finally put an end to Skynet. The death toll was rising, the battlefield shifting beneath their feet.  
She looked up startled when John and TJ came running into the kitchen: "We need to leave, mom!" John exclaimed upset.  
"What do you mean, John?"  
"The computer, it had the mark. It's a trap," TJ answered before John could. "They know where-"  
The front door splintered before TJ could finish his sentence. Sarah felt the adrenaline flowing through her veins increase rapidly and she pulled the Beretta from her waistband. Troy King stepped over the debris and immediately zeroed in on his targets.  
"RUN!!!" She barked at John and TJ. "NOW!!!"  
John did as he was taught and told and ran out the back door but TJ didn't move a muscle.  
"Now is not the time for your fascination with the machines," Sarah hissed as she aimed and fired at Troy King's head the moment he stepped into the kitchen. "RUN, TJ! RUN!!!"  
The machine, that appeared to be heavily damaged from his fall, came closer but the bullets she fired at it sorted no effect. They seemed to disappear or dissolved the moment they would have hit him. She knew that her Beretta was a just pea-shooter compared to the Remington she had put in her bedroom to clean and inspect, but it should've done some damage. However Troy King showed no signs of additional damage. It confused her.  
She grabbed TJ by the upper arm and started pushing him towards the back door. TJ was already out the door when Troy King pulled her back into the house.

Tyler yanked up the handbrake of the Dodge Charger he had stolen during his escape from the Los Angeles police. It had surprised him that the LAPD had been more persistent in their pursuit than he had expected or anticipated on. Now it had taken him longer to lose them and steal a car.  
He jumped out of the car and started scratching his left shoulder again. Something he had done earlier when they had broken into Zeiracorp, much to the annoyance of Derek and Sarah. The scar, a present from the T-1000, itched like crazy. He wondered why it itched now because the only times it itched like this was when he was reminded of the T-1000.  
"Stupid can of metal juice," he hissed while he ran into the house, barely registering the splintered door. "John?! TJ?! Sarah?!"  
He stopped dead in his tracks when he ran into the kitchen and saw Sarah literally pinned to the wall. Troy King stood in front of her, his blade-like arm piercing her right shoulder. That's why the scar itched like crazy.  
"I know this hurts," Troy King said monotonically while he twisted the blade first clockwise then counter-clockwise, causing Sarah to howl in pain.  
"Hey, tin juice!" Tyler boomed.  
It was a risk he had to take. If he was mistaken Troy King would now come after him again because he had been the primary target at ZeiraCorp. If he was right Troy King would most likely ignore him for now.  
Troy King looked at him for a moment and then turned his attention back to Sarah who tried to escaped by trying to pull the blade from her shoulder with her bare hands. Another bone chilling howl escaped her when Troy King slammed another knife-like hand through her left shoulder.  
"Call to John," Troy King ordered mechanically while he created a third arm and turned it into a blade. "Call to John… Now."  
"Fuck you!" Sarah seethed through gritted teeth, leaning back while Troy King brought the third blade up to her left eye.  
Time seemed to freeze for a moment while Tyler analyzed his options. In less than a second he came to the conclusion that he had no other choice but to let the machine take over. What he had been trying to suppress since he had been brought back from the dead, had to be summoned and unleashed. It was an almost uncontrollable being and he hoped that he could control it long enough for Sarah, John and TJ to make it to safety.  
He looked at Sarah one last time, smiled sadly when their eyes met and said softly: "Be safe, Connor."  
He closed his eyes and began to focus and channel his and the nanoattrioids' energy, letting it merge into one. Somewhere far away he heard a voice call: "What are you doing?" Black fog crept into his mind and his brain started to feel on fire. Memories disappeared, emotions were destroyed, the nanoattrioids took over in a dazzling speed.

"Tyler, no! Wait! What are you doing?" Sarah cried in horror as she watched the machine take over.  
The blank expression on his face, the empty look in his eyes, all telltale signs that Tyler Devlin was gone, and she knew that this time there was no turning back.  
Tyler came up behind Troy King and with two swift slashes of his left hand he separated Troy King's arms from his body before pulling Troy King away from Sarah. She used this opportunity to pull out the blades from her shoulders. The sharp blades cut deep into her hands but she didn't notice. High on adrenaline and numb from the pain. Blood was seeping through the fingers of her clenched fists and dripped onto the floor.  
She watched breathlessly while Tyler grabbed Troy King again and slammed him face first into the wall. Troy King morphed front to back and took firm hold of Tyler before tossing him through the kitchen. Tyler got back on his feet quickly, pulled back his left arm and delivered a pile driver blow to Troy King's head. He tilted his head a little when his fist disappeared into Troy King's head and suddenly found his wrist between Troy King's hands with Troy King's head emerging just a little to the right of where his head had been.  
The wall gave way with a sickening noise when Troy King slammed Tyler through it, and it woke Sarah from her frozen state. Dizzied by the excruciating pain in her hands and shoulders, she leaned against the wall next to the back door and watched in shock as Troy King and Tyler fought to gain the upper hand in the fight.  
Suddenly her eye was caught by something Tyler held in his hand and she looked up to see the real Tyler Devlin appear for a few seconds. It was an incendiary grenade, probably a thermate one but she couldn't tell for sure. She scrambled to get out of the door and away from the house.  
She fell to the floor when the explosion rocked the ground and she covered her head with her hands and arms when it started to rain shattered glass and debris. Someone came running towards and started pulling her into safety. She looked up and looked into the same kind eyes she had seen when Tyler had put his finger in the pin, but it wasn't Tyler looking at her now.  
"Com'on," TJ whispered as he helped her on her feet.  
She looked over her shoulder and saw the house engulfed in sea of flames: "Be safe, Devlin," she muttered.

Sarah, John and TJ stood staring at the charred skeleton of what had been a house only minutes before. Only smoke bellowed towards the night sky filled with stars.  
TJ remained quiet but stood staring at the ruins with a pensive look on his face, and Sarah could already see much of the future in him. Everything had changed and it would only be a matter of time before TJ would be Tyler, a brooding and determined man who would drive her insane from time to time but for whom she would care greatly.  
Her eyes drifted from TJ to her son. Maybe it would take a while for it to show but she knew that this experience was one of the a few very important turning points in his life. Tyler, who had been his friend and whom he had turned into something Tyler had never asked for, still had given his life to protect him, to protect them and to save the future.  
"Only the dead have seen the end of the war," John stated firmly and then added in a whisper: "Mission accomplished, soldier."

And the blazing fires of Hell had swallowed the Devil whole.


	27. Epilogue: The Future Is An Inevitability

Epilogue: The Future Is An Inevitability

A few days later…  
TJ walked into the living room of the Connors new home, sat down on the couch and switched the TV on. He started flipping through the channels until he found the news. It was still weird that the man he would be was gone. He still had so many questions to ask.  
"Ms. Catherine Weaver, CEO of ZeiraCorp, was pleased to announce today that the formation of the new division Babylon has been completed," the news anchor droned. "Experts from within her own company and from across the world have joined forces. Through the use of their extended knowledge of modernday technology, Ms. Weaver assured, ZeiraCorp will lead mankind into the world of future. It was the good news share holders and the stock market had been waiting for after the burglary at ZeiraCorp only last week. Ms. Weaver blamed the ease with which the thieves had entered the building and stole the equipment on faulty programming of the security system."  
Catherine Weaver appeared on screen, smiling at the camera: "We are a company that mostly develops hardware for computers. In the future we would like to start developing our own software that would be more compatible with our hardware."  
TJ switched off the TV and heaved a deeply disappointed sigh. In 20 years he would be sent back to this year to stop the future, to Skynet and it would all turn out to be in vain. The only thing that had been accomplished was that the future had changed in unforeseen ways.


End file.
